


step by step (we'll learn to love again)

by mythoughtsmymind



Category: Amar a Muerte (TV)
Genre: Amnesia, F/F, alternative universe, i like writing cliches ok?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-27
Updated: 2020-10-13
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:13:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 35,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22923892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mythoughtsmymind/pseuds/mythoughtsmymind
Summary: "She was pretty sure she had fallen asleep in her own room the night before, but her surroundings were not familiar. The window seemed to be in the wrong place and her bed was definitely not in the right position. Juliana closed her eyes once again; she was used to waking up feeling like she was in the wrong place since she had moved apartments a month ago, and usually she’d just close her eyes and try to think about where she was and then everything felt normal again.When she opened her eyes again, the brunette frowned in confusion. That was not her room. That wasn’t her new room either, it was somewhere completely different. She saw her mom asleep on the small couch next to wherever she was laying."orthe amnesia au every single fandom has
Relationships: Valentina Carvajal & Juliana Valdés, Valentina Carvajal/Juliana Valdés
Comments: 212
Kudos: 749





	1. Gertie

Juliana opened her eyes, soon squeezing them almost shut and placing her one of her hands in front of her face to keep the blinding white light away. As her eyes started adapting to the brightness of the room, the girl felt disoriented.

She was pretty sure she had fallen asleep in her own room the night before, but her surroundings were not familiar. The window seemed to be in the wrong place and her bed was definitely not in the right position. Juliana closed her eyes once again; she was used to waking up feeling like she was in the wrong place since she had moved apartments a month ago, and usually she’d just close her eyes and try to think about where she was and then everything felt normal again.

When she opened her eyes again, the brunette frowned in confusion. That was not her room. That wasn’t her new room either, it was somewhere completely different. She saw her mom asleep on the small couch next to wherever she was laying.

“Ma?” Juliana called her mother, her voice coming out raspier than usual “Lupe?” she tried again after her mother moved slightly from her original position.

The older woman opened her eyes when she heard her name, standing up in a jump once she realised her daughter was the one calling her. “Juli?” She basically ran to Juliana’s side, placing her hand on her forehead as a motherly instinct once she reached her

“How are you feeling, mija?”

It wasn’t until her mother asked her how she felt that Juliana realised her head hurt a lot.

“My head hurts,” She said squeezing her eyes shut once again, forgetting her worries about where she was and focusing only on the pain she felt “Can you bring me some aspirins?”

Lupe looked at her daughter full of worry. She seemed really confused, but that was expected, right?

“I’m calling the nurse, mija.

” “Wait, what?” Juliana inquired, a bit exasperated “Nurse? Are we in a hospital?”

Her mother was already down the hospital’s hallway once she finished her question, although it took no more than one minute for Lupe to be back, this time accompanied by another woman.

“Good morning, Ms Valdés,” the nurse asked, carefully stepping closer to Juliana while holding a clipboard on her hands “I’m Luz, I’ll be accompanying you through your stay here.”

“Ma, what’s going on?” Juliana asked, growing more confused with the time passing.

“Juli, you were in an accident,” Her mom answered, frowning, revisiting the stress she went through on the past night “Going to work, someone hit your car. It was a pretty bad accident.”

Lupe didn’t mean to scare her daughter, but she was still very startled by the situation. She didn’t know how to react to anything, or how to break the news to Juliana. She knew whatever she was going through, it wouldn’t be half as bad as the situation was for her daughter.

Juliana didn’t understand, she had a clear image of the events that happened before she woke up. She had had pasta for dinner, she had gone through her usual night routine, she even remember stubbing her left pinky toe on her newly placed bed right before laying down. How come she had forgotten a whole ass accident in between?

“Ms. Valdés, you look pretty worried,” The nurse made herself noticed again “But it’s very normal for patients to forget the accident and the events that preceded it when there’s head trauma, like in your case.”

Juliana was still extremely confused, but hearing that forgetting what she’d gone through was normal made her a bit more calm. She’d seen what seemed to be the tech attire she was used to when she glanced at the small table besides the hospital bed. At least that meant she hadn’t forgotten a long period of time; technology changed super fast and everything seemed pretty normal to her. The girl remained silent, even though she was a bit calmer, there was still a lot for her to process, and the pain she felt on her head was keeping her from doing anything significant.

“How are you feeling, Miss?” The nurse asked, taking some notes on the paper attached to her clipboard.

“My head hurts.” Juliana mumbled as a response.

“We’ll see what we can do about it,” Luz said on a very professional tone “I’m contacting the doctor assigned to your case immediately and I’ll be right back.”

“Thanks.” Juliana said in an almost inaudible whisper. The nurse left without saying anything else, leaving the confused woman with her mother.

“Ma, what happened?” Juliana had already understood she’d been on a car crash, but she needed to know more details to fill in the blank space in her mind.

“You had just left your apartment,” Lupe begined narrating the events “You were reaching the first crossing when a car suddenly came from the other street and there was a pretty bad crash.”

“So I was going to La mode?”

“Yes.”

“And it must’ve happened right in front of the library if it was on the first crossing.”

“Yes.”

“And how’s Gertie?” Juliana asked, referring to the car she’d bought once she started working.

“Long gone, mija.” Lupe answered, a bit less worried now, seeing her daughter’s main concern was the state of her car.

Same job. Same apartment. Same car. Juliana sighed in relief; she’d just forgotten the day of the accident, there would be no need to adapt to a whole new life. The young woman had never been happier her life wasn’t a movie.

“Valentina had to go to work, but I’m going to call her right now and I’m sure she’ll come here as soon as possible,” Lupita started babbling once she saw her daughter was clearly more relaxed “You really worried her, mija. You worried all of us.”

“Who?” Juliana asked, her confusion coming right back to her.

“Oh, Juli.” Her mother sighed with a big frown on her face.

The older woman reached to grab her daughter’s right hand, raising it to Juliana’s eye level. Juliana then saw the sparkling diamond ring on her ring finger.

Oh shit, maybe she’d forgotten more than she thought she did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> did anyone get the b99 reference? anyways hope yall enjoyed this little teaser, i have a few other chapters ready but i'd like to see the response to the story first :)


	2. Room 107

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you all for the positive response on the previous chapter :)  
> the first three chapters just set a baseline for the story so i'll publish them faster just so things are a bit more understandable

_“Mi amor, I’m leaving!” Juliana yelled from the front door of their apartment._

_The younger woman was grabbing her keys when she heard Valentina yelling._

_“Wait!” The taller girl rushed down the hallway, reaching Juliana on what she was sure was some new record speed “You can’t leave without saying goodbye.”_

_Juliana laughed at her fiancée. They’d just gotten engaged on the previous weekend and the past few days had been a taste of paradise, both girls were so happy and in love._

_“I’m sorry,” Juliana said, still laughing at Valentina, who was catching her breath._

_She wrapped her arms around the older one and turned her head to kiss the top of her head, that was already buried on the crook of her neck._

_“Bye, mi vida,” Juliana said, planting another kiss on Valentina’s head “Te amo.”_

_Valentina raised her head just enough to look her fiancée in the eyes._

_“Te amo, Juls,” She said, leaning forward to place a chaste kiss on the younger woman’s lips “Have a great day.”_

_“You too.” Juliana answered, separating their embrace and leaving their apartment._

\---

Valentina was devastated by Lupita’s phone call. Sure, she was extremely relieved Juliana had woken up and was feeling better, she couldn’t be more grateful for that. But hearing the love of her life’s mother say her fiancée had no recollection of the past three years broke her heart. Lupita didn’t want to say it, but Valentina immediately realized that meant Juliana didn’t know who she was.

All she wanted was to run to Juliana, hug her tight and tell her how much she loved her; but she couldn’t. Valentina knew her girlfriend was a pretty hesitant person when it came to manifesting feelings around people she didn’t know well. And she didn’t know Valentina at all.

The older woman was already halfway to the hospital when she realized she didn’t know what she’d do when she saw Juliana. Would she have to pretend she wasn’t crazy worried? Would she have to hold herself back to not engulf Juliana in the biggest hug ever? Would she be even able to tell her she loved her without scaring her?

When she was on the hospital door, she decided to call Lupita. Valentina and Lupe’s relationship might have started really rocky but, once they looked past all their problems, Juliana’s mother had become one of Valentina’s greatest source of support.

“Hola, Vale.” Lupita answered her phone almost instantly.

“Lupe, I’m at the hospital.”

“That’s great, mija!” The older woman started, happy she wasn’t alone anymore “We’re in room 107.”

“Lupe, I don’t know what to do.” Valentina said, her voice started trembling as all the built emotion overtook her.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Lupita tried calming her daughter in law down “do you want to meet me on the cafeteria?”

Valentina agreed and hung up the phone. She took a deep breath to calm herself down; she’d been to hospitals before, she knew she’d still have to go through someone to collect her data before she got in.

After going through security, Valentina rushed to the cafeteria, where she found Lupita sitting on a table.

“Hi, Vale.” She said, standing up to secure her daughter in law on a hug.

Valentina couldn’t help it, the tears she’d been holding back since Lupita’s first phone call all came out.

“It’s okay,” Juliana’s mother said reassuringly “It’s going to be okay.”

“I’m sorry.” Valentina said, separating the hug and wiping her tears with the back of her hands.

“Vale, Juliana is going to be okay,” Lupita said trying to make the situation a little better “Everything will be fixed soon.”

“I know, I’m sorry,” Valentina said still crying silently “She just scared the crap out of me.” She continued, chuckling through her tears.

Both sat down at the table the older woman was sitting on previously. Valentina was hoping Lupe would bring up the elephant in the room. She didn’t have enough strength to ask her what to do.

“Juli is excited to meet you.” The older woman said after some silence .

Valentina sighed. She didn’t know what approach she was expecting, but she definitely wasn’t happy with hearing her girlfriend of almost three years was “excited to meet her”.

“Look, Vale, this isn’t going to be easy, I’m sorry,” Lupita started “But we’ll all be here to help you and Juliana through it. Panchito already know what’s going on and I know your family is always here to help too.”

“Thank you,” Valentina said, completing her thoughts after some hesitation “I just don’t know what to do. I don’t want to scare Juliana away, but I can’t keep myself distant either.”

“Well, you know how Juli is,” Lupita said, truly feeling bad for the girl in front of her “You’re gonna have to have some patience, but she’s got a soft spot for you.”

Valentina nodded slowly, still trying to form a plan on what to do once she saw Juliana.

“You’re dying to see her, aren’t you?” Lupe asked with a teasing smile.

Valentina laughed, nodding her head. Whatever plan she was thinking of didn’t matter anymore, she just needed to see Juliana; she needed to see her with her eyes opened and sitting in bed. She needed to see her alive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i honestly just broke the first part in three because i like dramatic endings but i promisse next chapters will be longer


	3. Strangers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is not very biologically accurate. i did do some research but i'm not in med school

“Juli, you have to be nice to her,” Lupita said to her daughter in a lecturing tone “It’s really hard for her too.”

Valentina said she forgot something in her car when they reached the door of Juliana’s hospital room. Lupita knew the girl was probably just preparing herself mentally to see Juliana, so she used the time she had to have a little talk with her daughter.

“I know,” Juliana started “It’s just really weird. I’m sure she’s a great person but she’s a stranger.”

“Don’t say that,” Lupita censored her daughter “She’s helped you so much through these years. She really loves you, Juli.”

Juliana felt extremely overwhelmed. She had just discovered that something around three years of memories had been simply erased from her mind, she hadn’t even had time to discuss it properly with her doctor and yet she was supposed to meet someone who was a big part of her life. As much as Juliana felt bad for the woman she was about to meet, she felt like her feelings weren’t being taken into consideration. She’d just suffered some sort of major head trauma, it was too much for her to process at once.

Her string of thoughts was interrupted by a shy knock on the door.

“Be nice.” Lupita whispered as she made her way to open the door for Valentina.

“Hi.” She heard a silent voice.

Valentina was probably talking to Lupita, Juliana thought. She still couldn’t see the girl due to the tiny dark hallway on the entrance of her room, only big enough for a cupboard she hadn’t dared to open.

On the brief moment when she couldn’t see her fiancée, Juliana realised she had absolutely no idea what Valentina looked like; all Lupita had told her was that she was a great young woman. She didn’t know what to expect, but as soon as Valentina properly stepped into the room, Juliana felt shocked by how beautiful the woman was.

She didn’t allow herself to stare for too long, she thought it would feel a bit creepy, but she looked long enough to notice her almost blonde hair, that had slight waves on the tips, and her eyes. She’d never seen eyes like hers before.

Juliana directed a small smile to Valentina, who was awkwardly standing right in front of the small hallway, holding a bouquet of flowers.

“Hi, Juls.” Valentina smiled at her, still not moving from her spot.

“I need to have something to eat,” Lupita said, poking her head into sight “I’ll be back in a little while.”

Juliana didn’t know how to act when she was left alone with Valentina, and she could see that the older girl didn’t know what to do either. They stared each other for a few seconds before Valentina started approaching the hospital bed.

“These are for you.” Valentina said, shyly extending the bouquet to Juliana.

“Thank you.” Juliana said with an awkward smile, reaching to grab the beautiful flower from the other girl’s hands. There was another moment of silence, where Juliana felt slightly embarrassed by Valentina’s gaze analysing her.

“How are you feeling?” Valentina broke their silence.

“I’m feeling a little better,” Juliana answered politely “They gave me some meds for the pain.”

Valentina met Juliana’s eyes. The younger girl was taken aback a little by the amount of emotion on the other’s eyes. Valentina instantly felt the hesitation in Juliana, so she looked away to make her feel a little more comfortable. She didn’t expect that little moment to affect her so much, but her eyes started to get watery, remembering she was a stranger to the girl in front of her.

“I’m sorry,” Valentina said, looking up to keep her tears from spilling and sighing “I’m glad you’re feeling better.”

Juliana knew she was making the girl sad and she felt terrible for that. She placed the flowers she was still holding on the small table besides the bed and grabbed on of Valentina’s hand with both of hers. The gesture felt a little uncomfortable for Juliana, she wasn’t used to physical affection on a first meeting. But at the same time she knew that wasn’t their first meeting, and she felt like she had to provide some sort of comfort for Valentina.

The older girl looked back down at Juliana, smiling even though there was a tear making her way down her cheek. She quickly wiped it with her other hand before placing it on top of their joined hands, stroking her thumb lightly over Juliana’s.

Juliana couldn’t help but notice how everything seemed slightly natural. Valentina’s touch brought her some sort of relief, even though it all still felt a little weird.

“I’m sorry, Val.” Juliana didn’t know what she usually called Valentina and that seemed like a pretty reasonable name, but it still felt super weird to her. She couldn’t bring herself to say anything else, simply because she didn’t know what to say. But the silence established this time between them wasn’t as awkward as the previous one. Valentina kept on holding Juliana’s hands, and the girl didn’t move them away. That made her feel a little better, Juliana wasn’t being as resistant as she thought she would be.

“So, pretty weird situation, huh?” Valentina said trying to break the tension between them. She earned a small laugh from Juliana, so she interpreted it as a mild success.

“You can sit down,” Juliana said, scooching a little bit to the side to make room for Valentina on the hospital bed, also enjoying the situation to let go of the girl’s hand “I’m sorry it’s all a little weird.”

“It’s not your fault,” Valentina said sitting down “I’m sorry you’re going through all of this,” she continued making a circle motion with her finger in front of her “I can’t imagine how hard it must be for you, it’s so much.”

Juliana felt a sense of relief wash over her. At least Valentina understood it was hard for her too.

“I’ll try to make it easier for you, I promise,” Valentina started blurting out words, as she did sometimes when she felt nervous “I’ll give you some space so you can focus on recovering properly, you don’t even have to think about…”

Valentina’s babbling was interrupted by Lupita walking back into the room, accompanied by a doctor. She quickly stood up from the bed, standing besides her girlfriend’s mother, eager to listen to whatever the doctor had to say.

“Hello, Ms. Valdés,” The doctor greeted Juliana “I’m Dr. Manuela. We did some tests while you were still unconscious and I have the results with me now.”

The three other women in the room were extremely anxious to hear whatever diagnose the doctor had.

“It seems like you suffered from a mild traumatic brain injury. You got lucky considering the magnitude of the accident,” The doctor started saying more things about the technicalities of the situation “We don’t have to keep you here for that but you do need close supervision at home.”

“We’ll help her doctor.” Lupita said almost immediately.

“Okay, I’ll give you some instructions on what you have to do in a little while,” The doctor replied, smiling at Juliana’s mother “Now, Luz told me there appears to be a case of traumatic amnesia. That unfortunately happens a lot on patients who suffer from TBI. There’s nothing we can do to treat it directly, but I’m hoping your family can also help you with that.”

“Of course we can.” Lupita said both to the doctor and to Juliana.

“That’s great,” The doctor proceeded with another smile “Some of the measures that can be taken are looking for a cognitive therapist, that will help a lot; but also telling stories, showing pictures and videos of what happened on the period of time Ms. Valdés doesn’t remember is very important.”

“Will I be able to remember anything?” Juliana asked, scared to know the answer.

“You’re very likely to recover your memory fully,” Dr. Manuela said, bringing relief to everyone in the room “I can’t tell you how much time it will take, though, that varies a lot depending on the patient. We’ll have to schedule some check ups to make sure everything is okay with your injury, but you’re free to go home, Ms. Valdés.”

Juliana was really happy she’d get to go back to a place she knew,. She might've had just moved to that apartment but it already felt so much more like a home than the extremely bright and white hospital room.

“I can take her home, Lupe,” Valentina said to Juliana’s mom once the doctor left the room “I have the rest of the day off, either way.”

Valentina lived with her. Of course she did, they were engaged, Juliana felt slightly stupid for not even considering that possibility. She tried suppressing a sigh, she really didn’t want to be rude to the other woman, but the space she thought would be a comfort zone to her would also be an unknown place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i know you guys were expecting something more angsty but i'm not really good at that.  
> things will get a little worse though  
> anyways last part of the introduction! next up the story really starts going on


	4. Cora

_“Is that everything?” Juliana asked Valentina after entering the apartment for the seventh time in the past hour, both girl carrying boxes in their arms._

_“I think so,” Valentina said placing the box she was holding next to the ones she’d brought to the apartment earlier. She contemplated the large amount of unpacked boxes placed in the living room of her new home “There is so much stuff.”_

_“We’ll find some space for everything.” Juliana said, placing the box in her arms next to the one Valentina had just put on the floor, and walking closer to her girlfriend._

_Juliana stopped at Valentina’s side, facing her profile. She grabbed one of her girlfriend’s hand with both off hers and pulled on it a little bit to get the taller girl to face her._

_“I’m really happy we’re doing this, you know?” She asked once Valentina looked at her._

_“I’m really happy, too,” Valentina answered with a big smile, placing her free hand on top of their joined ones “You make me really happy.”_

_Juliana blushed a little and looked down, feeling a little embarrassed. She found it impressive how Valentina still had the ability to make her blush like that even after two years of dating. Valentina chuckled at her girlfriend’s response to her words, she loved that she could still make Juliana feel flustered. She let go of her hands just so she could wrap her arms around her neck, keeping the distance between their bodies. Juliana grabbed Valentina’s waist by reflex. If the scene was seen from the outside it’d be a bit comic, it looked like they were in a middle school dance, the arm distance, Juliana looking down, too shy to look at the pretty girl._

_“You make me happier.” Juliana affirmed after a moment of silence, looking up at Valentina._

\---

The whole way to their house was extremely awkward and silent. It was still weird for Juliana to think of her apartment as “their house”, she’d just moved into the place, completely by herself, not expecting anyone to share it with any time soon. One of the things she was most excited about this apartment when she first bought it was that she was going to have the whole space for herself.

When they arrived the small hall of the apartment, Juliana felt the comfort of seeing something familiar. The ugly polkadot wallpaper her next door neighbor had there when she first moved in was still there, she’d never thought that would bring her any form of positive emotion. At the same time she was disappointed at herself for not being able to negotiate the removal of that on the three years she lived there.

The comfort lasted around ten seconds, until Valentina grabbed her keys from her purse, making that well know noise of the keys hitting the keychains. Instantly, high pitched barks started coming from the other side of the door.

“I have a dog?” Juliana whispered to herself, making Valentina laugh a little.

The door was opened and the small dog came rushing to jump on her owners.

“She’s still a puppy,” Valentina said, kneeling to be able to pet the dog “We got her six months ago.”

When Juliana entered the apartment, she knew that technically it was still the same; a small two bedroom place with a kitchen opened to a space that was at the same time a living and a dining room, the small porch right besides the four place dinner table, but everything was so different. First of all, there weren’t hundreds of boxes spread around the house, which was a good thing. But the place was stuffed with books Juliana was sure she had never read (no matter how much time passed, she knew she’d never become an avid reader), the porch had become the dog’s space and the couch was a different one too.

“What is it?” Valentina asked once she saw Juliana stopped at the door frame.

“Things are different.” Juliana answered, stepping further into the apartment.

“Oh,” Valentina said “I’m pretty sure your office is untouched.” She continued, trying to comfort Juliana in some way.

“I didn’t have an office.” Juliana said, her tone coming out a bit more harsher than she intended.

“Oh, sorry.” Valentina said, feeling embarrassed.

She didn’t know exactly how much Juliana’s remembered from her life. Valentina was almost one hundred percent certain that the spare bedroom in their house had always been used as an office, it’s what made most sense. The atmosphere became really awkward between them.

“I didn’t mean to be rude,” Juliana said, feeling slightly bad, but still very overwhelmed “I’m sorry, if you’ll excuse me.”

Juliana made her way into the apartment, entering the spare bedroom and closing the door behind her, leaning her back against the door. She really didn’t want to hurt anyone, but she needed some space for herself, she hadn’t been alone since the moment she had woken up, she needed some time to process everything that was going on.

Valentina, on the other hand, was left alone in the living room, not knowing what to do. She felt terrible, like she was overstepping some invisible boundary in her own home. The girl sighed and took a sit on the floor. The puppy instantly crawled into her lap, laying her head on one of Valentina’s thigh.

“Hi, Cora,” Valentina cooed, petting the dog’s head “Juls is a little sick right now, but she’ll get better.”

Cora jumped from Valentina’s thigh, putting her tiny paws on the woman’s chest and licking her face. Valentina giggled a little at the contact, rubbing the puppies back while she still jumped on her. At that exact moment a giant wave of sadness washed over her and she finally allowed to let herself cry all she wanted. There was no one from work with her, Lupita wasn’t there to say all would be fine and Juliana obviously wouldn’t come out of her office to talk to her, so no one could stop her from letting it all out.

Valentina didn’t understand what was happening. She knew the whole situation wouldn’t be easy to deal with, but when Juliana comforted her on the hospital, she felt sure it wouldn’t be as hard as she initially thought it would be. After the small interaction in the living room, she felt Juliana shutting her out completely

\---

Juliana sat in front of the computer she found in the nicely decorated office. She’d seen all the pictures that were hung around the room and the few portraits placed on the desk. Most of them were of her and Valentina, pictures where they looked really happy; there were one of two that Juliana actually remembered taking, from when her life was still the way she knew.

She typed in her password to unlock the computer, in the hopes of finding something that maybe could make her remember something, or even better, something that was still the same. The password didn’t work.

Juliana huffed in frustration and tried around five variations of the same password before giving up on unlocking the computer. She then grabbed her phone; those things hadn’t changed a lot, they were slightly different, with what was probably a better camera, but they still had the face recognition feature.

The girl was relieved to see that both her lock screen and home screen were the default ones, she didn’t have to deal with any new faces at that moment. She scrolled through the phone trying to make sure she still knew how to use it. There were some new apps she didn’t recognize and most of the familiar icons had been changed, but she still had full domain over the object. At least something was still the same.

Juliana decided to do what she feared the most at that moment: she opened the photos app. She was very happy to see she knew who most people who showed up in the pictures were, the fact that she still took pictures of landscapes was also nice to know. But of course most of her camera roll was occupied with pictures of Valentina. She sighed even though she already expected to find that.

On the time she’d been on the room, she was starting to feel more and more guilty for the way she snapped at Valentina. She honestly felt a little embarrassed to leave the room and confront her now, but she knew it would have to been done some time soon. She just hoped that the older woman understood that she wouldn’t go back to being her fiancée she knew and loved instantly.

She heard a gentle knock on the door, announcing that the moment she was trying to postpone had already arrived.

“Come in.” Juliana said loud enough for Valentina to listen.

The door was opened only enough for Valentina to poke her head in the room. Cora squeezed herself in the small space, walking up to Juliana and laying on her feet. The younger woman smiled down at the puppy and then looked up at Valentina.

“Come in.” She repeated, a bit more silently this time.

Valentina hesitantly walked into the room, stopping in front of the now fully opened door. Juliana would have to be completely oblivious to miss the fact that the woman had been crying. Her eyes were a little swollen and her face was still red. Juliana just hoped she wouldn’t want to have a discussion right now.

“The doctor told me to check up on you every couple hours,” Valentina extended the glass of water she was holding on one of her hands to Juliana “I brought you water. Are you hungry?”

Juliana could hear the difference in her voice, it sounded raspier now.

“Thank you,” Juliana said grabbing the glass “I’m fine, thanks.”

“And how does your head feel?”

“It hurts.”

“I don’t think you can have more pain killers yet, I’m going to check on my notes.”

Juliana found it sweet when she saw Valentina taking notes back when they were at the hospital and the doctor was giving away all the instructions. She knew the girl would take good care of her.

Valentina left the room and was back with her small notebook very quickly. She saw a little table drawn, it was apparently keeping track of all the medication she needed. Valentina had definitely worked on her notes on their time apart, there was no way she could’ve done that while the doctor was talking.

“You still have to wait an hour,” Valentina said after finding the last time Juliana had had meds noted “Is it okay?”

“I can take another hour.” Juliana answered

The uncomfortable silence overtook the room once again.

“Uh, I’m gonna go.” Valentina said pointing at the door.

“Wait,” Juliana stopped the other woman, surprising her “I’m sorry. Everything is very new to me, I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“It’s okay,” Valentina smiled sadly at Juliana before leaving Juliana alone. She knew her girlfriend needed some space.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm kinda scared of what yall are gonna think of this chapter but hope you liked it :)


	5. July

Juliana knew the talk she was avoiding the whole day had to happen and as much as she wished she could postpone it even more, it was quite hard when the whole topic of the conversation was literally right there, a room away from her. After spending some more time by herself, looking at the pictures on her phone and resting (after all she had suffered a head trauma and that was more physically draining than she thought was possible), Valentina came back to the room, holding the small box with the aspirins.

She thought of starting the conversation then and there, she really did, but when Valentina walked in, all Juliana could do was thank her for the aspirins and say she was going to take a nap. Juliana walked into the other room, also completely changed through time, and sat on the edge of the bed.

Thinking about all the information she received that day, Juliana just sat frozen for an instant. Then she glanced at the wall in front of her, with a beautiful flower painting hung above a drawer unit. The changes made to the house were all amazing and she’d have loved them in any other circumstances, but at that moment Juliana just wished all the walls were white again and that the whole mess of boxes created during the moving process was still there. She found herself crying for the first time since everything started happening.

Juliana wasn’t one to cry much, but at that moment she found no other escape. Suddenly the fact that she didn’t know where her pyjamas were was depressing, everything felt really intense.

The girl layed down with the clothes she was wearing, shutting her eyes tight on the hopes to sleep and wake up to her normal life again.

\---

“Juls,” She heard a soft whisper fill the room and felt a cold hand being pressed on her bare arms “Juls.”

Juliana opened her eyes, feeling extremely disoriented. She then localized herself. The little pray type thing she did before going to sleep hadn’t worked.

“I’m sorry for waking you up,” Valentina said in a still very low tone “But you need to eat something, you haven’t eaten the whole day.”

Juliana looked up at Valentina, whose features were softly illuminated by her bedside table lamp. In her state of mind, she didn’t even feel out of place, all she could think about was how pretty her eyes were. She directed a drowsy smile to Valentina, who smiled widely in response.

When Juliana started coming back to reality, she closed her eyes and groaned, remembering everything she was going through and suddenly becoming painfully aware of Valentina’s hand on her arm.

“I made some tamales.” Valentina decided to hide the fact she had actually just heat up the ones Lupita had made when she went to her house the night before. She didn’t need to know she was a disaster at the kitchen just yet.

Lupita had gone to their apartment multiple times when Juliana was still in a coma. In fact the girl was never alone during that week, if it wasn’t her fiancée’s mother, it was her brother or a friend from work.

“I’ll be right there.” Juliana said, hoping Valentina would get the hint and leave the room before her.

She did.

Juliana walked into the bathroom to throw some cold water on her face, so she could be properly awake and aware on the conversation that was about to come. She went to the dining room, where Valentina was already sat down with two plates prepared on the table.

While eating their meal in silence, Juliana felt grateful that the person she was living with could cook as well as her mother. Seriously, the tamales tasted just like when her mom made them, maybe she’d have to give props to Valentina for that.

When they finished, neither of them got out of their chairs.

“Uh, can I talk to you?” Juliana said awkwardly while placing her hand on the back of her neck as a nervous gesture.

“Of course.” Valentina said with a kind smile. “The doctor said you could help me,” Juliana blurted out “Remembering things, I mean.”

Her words were coming out so stiff and it all felt so unnatural. Juliana sighed and resumed talking once her discomfort reduced a little.

“I need to know… I want to know who you are,” She corrected herself mid-sentence “I want to know something about my life.”

Valentina sensed how uncomfortable her girlfriend was and that broke her heart. It had taken so long for her to get Juliana do let her walls down once they first started dating, and it felt like the whole process was happening again.

“You work for a fashion company, you love photography and anything creative really, you really like going to parks and…”

“Valentina, I already know all that.”

“I know,” Valentina confirmed, on a sadder tone “I just wanted you to see that you’re still the same.”

Juliana felt slightly annoyed by the girl’s methods but it had actually made her feel a little calmer knowing she hadn’t changed as a person.

“I’ll tell you some new things,” Valentina continued, seeing her approach wasn’t exactly successful “We met at a park, you were on a break from work and I don’t even know why I was there, sometimes I like to believe it was just destiny. You sat next to me on a bench, we started talking and we just clicked.”

“When did that happen?” Juliana asked. That didn’t seem like something she would ever do.

“It was August,” Valentina started talking once again with a smile. Remembering the first time they met was like going to a safe place at that moment “It didn’t take too much for our friendship to grow and grow and eventually become something else.”

“The last day I remember was in June.” Juliana threw that information on the table.

“That’s unfortunate,” Valentina said without really thinking “I’m sorry, that sounded really selfish.”

“It’s true,” Juliana tried to say it casually but some bitterness manifested itself on her voice “The whole situation is very unfortunate.”

The now well known awkward silence took over the room once again.

“The first fashion show you organized was in July.” Valentina remembered.

“Yeah, I was getting ready for that.”

“Do you want to see some pictures?” Valentina asked, remembering about the album they kept with the progression of Juliana’s career on a scrapbook-ish format “I wasn’t there but you told me the story so many times. The event was an absolute success.”

“Sure.” Juliana smiled at the possibility of seeing the results of something she had worked on so hard.

“I’ll be right back.” Valentina went to the living room, steps away from their dining table, and got a huge album out of a shelf on the room and placed it on the side of the table that wasn’t occupied with stuff from their dinner.

“Come here.” Valentina said, indicating the chair next to her.

Juliana obliged, eager to see whatever was in there. Valentina then opened the album, skipping the first page quickly. The album had been a gift from her and there was a note left in the first page that she knew it would be too much for Juliana at that moment. Juliana smiled when she saw pictures of the models walking down the runaway, then pictures of the place the event was being hosted and everything seemed to have gone exactly as she had planned for such a long time.

She noticed there was something written on the bottom of the page and quickly dedicated herself to reading it.

_“The first one: The one where I wasn’t there. The one you told me about a million times. The one I wanna hear you talking about a million more times.”_

“Now that I think about it, you can probably see more about all of them on your portfolio,” Valentina said, making Juliana take her eyes away from the handwritten note “I think your website has always been the same.”

“About that,” Juliana said remembering her failed attempts to access the computer “Do you know my computer’s password?”

Valentina laughed at the question, thinking about Juliana being locked out of her own computer.

“I do,” She started “I’ll write down the passwords I know for you. The rest of them are in your journal.”

“Thank you,” Juliana blushed in embarrassment once the other woman laughed “I think I’ll go to sleep now.”

“I’ll take care of the dishes.” Valentina said.

A little while after, Juliana appeared back in the living room in her pyjamas, which she had found after opening every single drawer in their room, holding a pillow and a blanket (those were already on the bed).

“What are you doing?” Valentina asked.

“I’m sleeping here.”

The older girl realized they wouldn’t be sleeping in the same bed for a while; she was still a stranger to Juliana, remembering that made sadness take her over again. She tried not to manifest any emotions but the change in her humor was not only visible, but also really audible when she replied.

“You need to be comfortable because of your injury,” Valentina started, her voice trembling slightly “Stay in the bed, I’ll get the couch.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i promise things are getting better next chapter lol  
> also i just wanted to say that i don't think my updates are always gonna be this frequent cause college but i'll try to keep things coming


	6. Gertie II

_Juliana parked her car on the driveway of the big house. Her dates with Valentina were going great and that one was no exception. The simplest of plans, such as dinner and movies, became really fun once she was by her side._

_“Today was great.” Valentina said, leaning her head onto the car seat and turning it to the side to look at Juliana._

_The younger girl mimicked her movements, with a big smile on her face._

_“I don’t want you to go yet.” Juliana affirmed, she wanted to prolong that night as much as she could._

_“I don’t want to go yet.”_

_“Well, that’s perfect, then,” Juliana said with a light chuckle “We’ll just stay here.”_

_Valentina laughed a little, too and then a comfortable silence was established between them. The girls were just looking at each other, enjoying the intimacy looks could provide._

_After a few minutes in silence, Juliana extended her hand towards Valentina’s arm, her hand ran through the extension of the older girl’s arm very softly until it reached her hand, which Juliana grabbed on her own, interlocking their fingers. Both were looking down at their joined hands, with shy smiles on their faces. They had experienced each other’s touch already, but everything was still very new to them._

_Valentina looked up at Juliana’s eye in an inviting manner, so their gazes would meet again. It didn’t take too long for Juliana to look back at Valentina and smile._

_The older girl directed their joined hands to her waist, letting go once Juliana had her hand placed on the spot. Valentina raised her hand to Juliana’s face, brushing a strand of dark hair behind her ear and then resting her hand on the brunette’s cheek. She approached Juliana until their foreheads were joined._

_The pair closed their eyes, anticipating what was about to come, but neither of them made the move. Valentina heard Juliana’s small sigh, smiling at the sound. Not long after that she felt the other girl’s lips pressing against hers. That wasn’t their first kiss, yet everything felt as magical as the first one. The kiss started out very shy and soft, but the more they moved their lips against one another’s, the more addictive it became. Juliana parted the kiss after a while to catch her breath, but she barely had time to do so before Valentina crashed their lips together once again in a much more intense kiss._

_A loud noise broke them apart suddenly; somehow Juliana had managed to press her car’s horn with her elbow. Both girls laughed at what had just occurred, still staring at each other once their laughter died down._

_“Maybe we should go back inside.” Valentina suggested_

\---

“There’s no salvation. Is there, ma?”

“Juli, she is wrecked”

Juliana looked through the glass on the waiting room of the car repairing shop. She’d have to say goodbye to Gertie.

“What are they going to do with her?” Juliana asked her mom.

“I don’t know, Juli. Maybe they’ll look for some reusable pieces? I’m not a mechanic.” Lupita answered.

Juliana looked at the glass again, becoming silent. Lupita thought she was just saying some silent goodbyes to her car, but the question that followed proved her wrong.

“What about the other driver?” Juliana met her mom’s eyes, she was actually terrified to hear the answer, maybe she shouldn’t have asked anything.

“Some broken ribs and a broken arm,” Lupita said “He’s still recovering.”

“Wait, you kept in contact with them?”

“I had to, Juli,” Lupita started “He destroyed your car, I needed his contact in case things didn’t work out with insurance.”

There was a little pause on the older woman’s speech

“I was also worried,” She admitted “He got into the hospital with you and I saw him going into a room on a hospital bed. I needed to know everything was fine.”

“Oh.” Juliana answered, barely making any sound.

She didn’t know how she felt about the strange man. Part of her wanted to blame him for everything that was going on with her, but the other part couldn’t cause she didn’t really know what happened in the accident. Maybe she was guilty for his broken bones, and not the other way around.

“How are things working out between you and Vale?” Lupita changed the subject, sensing her daughter’s discomfort.

“She’s very patient.” That was all she could say. She didn’t really understand how things were working out between them.

“She’s great, mija.”

Juliana stopped a little while to reflect. She was always deadly scared to come out to Lupita, she thought her mother wouldn’t understand her. She didn’t know if her concept of her mother was incorrect or if Valentina had something to do with her acceptance.

“Ma?”

“Yes, mija?”

“Have you always liked Valentina?”

“When you first introduced me to Valentina I loved her, I thought she made you happier and I thought it was great you were making some new friendships,” Lupita revisited the past, back when she didn’t know about how strong Juliana and Valentina’s bond actually was “But you introduced her to me as your friend.”

Lupita sighed before continuing what she had to say.

“My opinions about her changed when I found out you were more than that,” Juliana’s mother now felt embarrassed about how badly she had first reacted to the girl’s relationship “Now I know my reaction wasn’t right. But back then i didn’t understand that your love for her wasn’t wrong. I also felt betrayed by you hiding such a big part of your life from me.”

“But then I understood that all that mattered was that she actually made you happy, and I wanted you to be happy more than anything, I still do” She continued her discourse “Also, Valentina is very easy to love.”

Juliana didn’t know how to respond to all her mother had just told her. She caught herself thinking back to the events that happened that morning.

She had woken up with Valentina entering their room to get ready for work, but she kept her eyes closed to stop any awkward situation from happening. She had heard Valentina’s heels hitting the floor as she was about to leave the room, when suddenly the noise stopped. Juliana was slightly confused, but then she felt soft lips pressed against her forehead, joined with the light touch of slender fingers in her hair and a whispered proclamation of love. The whole interaction was so gentle that it would probably go unnoticed if Juliana was actually asleep.

She knew Valentina was a good person, she knew they clicked instantly when they first met. Why was it so awkward now?

Juliana felt like she was, somehow, stealing someone else’s life since she’d woken up from her coma. There was nothing wrong with her life, it was actually great; the problem was that it wasn’t really _her_ life.

“Juli?” Lupita was worried about the lack of response from her daughter. She was afraid that meant Juliana was disappointed by Lupe’s past actions.

“Ma,” Juliana started, looking a little desperate “I don’t know what to do.”

“It’s okay, mija.” Lupita reassured her daughter, pulling her into a hug.

\---

Juliana heard the small barks from the other side of the door once she grabbed her keys to enter her apartment. Her mother had just dropped her off on her building, since she also had her own responsibilities to deal with on the course of that day. Cora’s barks made her happy this time. Suddenly she was eager to enter the apartment and just spend some time with a creature that didn’t care that Juliana wasn’t the same.

“Hi, Cora!” Juliana said making a baby voice when she unlocked the door and the dog jumped on her.

As soon as the woman entered the apartment properly and locked the door she picked her up on her lap. Juliana didn’t know what breed Cora was, it wasn’t anything super well know, such as a pug; she would have to ask Valentina about that later. All she knew was that the dog was really small.

“You are so cute!” Juliana said while still making the baby voice. Cora licked her face, making her laugh.

“Oh my god, you scared me,” Juliana said, almost dropping the dog when she saw Valentina on the kitchen “I thought you were at work.”

She then gently put Cora on the floor, afraid of actually dropping her. As soon as her paws touched the floor she ran to the porch. Valentina was laughing through the whole scene, and still hadn’t been able to say anything back. She attempted saying something but her laughter interrupted her. Juliana started laughing along, partially because the scene was actually funny, but more because Valentina’s laugh was contagious.

“I’m sorry,” Valentina said while wiping the tears that came out while she was laughing “My schedule is flexible.”

“Oh,” Juliana said, a long pause came before her next sentence “I went with my mom to see the car today.”

Juliana intended on speaking more, but Valentina accidently cut her off.

“I’m gonna miss Gertie.”

“You liked Gertie?” Juliana asked, honestly surprised. Gertie wasn’t that nice of a car, she was just emotionally attached to it.

“Yes.” Valentina mumbled, blushing at the memories of everything that had happened in that car.

“Ok, that’s besides the point,” Juliana was slightly embarrassed about what she was about to say, but she wanted Valentina to know that she was also trying to get things back to where they used to be “My mom told me about us.”

“What did she say?” Valentina was confused; usually when someone said that they were about to say something bad and she didn’t think Lupe would tell her off to Juliana. At least not with all that was happening.

“She just told me about us,” Juliana hated how she couldn’t phrase anything properly when she was talking to Valentina “About how she felt about us.”

“Oh.” Valentina exclaimed quietly, feeling really relieved. Lupe supported their relationship, it was nothing bad.

“I just,” Juliana sighed “I just wanted to thank you. I’ve always been scared of coming out to my mom and she told me you helped me through it.”

“You did the same for me,” Valentina said, very quietly “Not with my mom, but you helped me when people from my family or work didn’t understand us.”

There was some silence between them.

“Juls, can I just ask you for one thing?” Valentina said, she didn’t know how to ask for that but she needed it.

“Sure,” Juliana said, slightly scared “What do you need?”

“Can I…” Valentina hesitated, it all felt really awkward and she regretted her decision a little “Never mind, I don’t want to force you to do anything.”

“Val, I won’t do it if I don’t want to,” Juliana said, surprised by how naturally the name came out of her mouth this time “Promise.”

“Can I hug you?” Valentina asked, feeling extremely stupid “Just once. You don’t have to if you don’t want to, I just…”

The nervous blurting out of words were interrupted by Juliana.

“Yes.” She said, feeling a bit awkward. But deep down she also wanted to hug Valentina to thank her for sticking by her side.

Valentina sighed in relief and quickly walked up to Juliana, wrapping her arms around her waist. The shorter girl hugged her neck, shocked by how comfortable she felt. She really thought that hug was going to be really awkward, but it was something both girls needed.

“Thank you.” Valentina whispered to Juliana. There was so much she wanted to say; she wanted to tell her how she missed her and how worried she was with the accident, she wanted to tell her how much she loved her. But Valentina also knew she had to take baby steps.

Juliana didn’t answer Valentina with words, it felt wrong to answer what Valentina had said, but she let herself melt a bit more into the embrace and squeezed her a little tighter. Juliana had been feeling so alone; she knew people were by her side to help her, but she didn’t feel like people understood her. Something about that hug told her that she didn’t need to feel like that with Valentina by her side.

After what was quite a long hug, the girls parted and Juliana felt the awkwardness that was bound to fill the room.

“Uh, I have to work on some stuff.” Juliana said pointing to the halway.

Valentina knew that was an excuse, because the doctor still hadn’t given Juliana the heads up to go back to work. But that really couldn’t take away the happiness provided by the hug.

“Okay.” She said with a tender smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> gertie is valid yall


	7. Guille

After two days of Juliana being back home, the weekend finally arrived. That didn’t mean a big difference in her routine since she hadn’t returned work yet, but it did mean that Valentina would be home for much longer than the previous days.

Juliana got up from her bed as soon as she woke up, making her way to the kitchen to prepare breakfast, something she actually had always loved doing. On her way, she found Valentina still asleep on the couch. She couldn’t help but notice how uncomfortable the girl looked and she felt a little guilty, knowing it was her fault that the older woman was sleeping there. She kept going ahead to the kitchen after releasing a sigh.

Juliana didn’t want to wake Valentina up, she knew the past couple days had been really rough for her and she deserved to have some peace, but it was really hard when their kitchen was opened to the living room. As soon as she grabbed a plate from a cupboard, she heard Valentina squirming in the couch, deciding she’d have to find a way to be more quiet.

The woman found a kettle laying on the counter, so she decided to start breakfast by preparing coffee, that usually didn’t make a lot of noise. She put enough water for two cups of coffee inside the container and started boiling the water. Finding things in the kitchen wasn’t as hard as it was with the bedroom, everything was basically in the same place they were when Juliana first moved in.

She grabbed the large thermal bottle and let everything ready so she could just pour the water once it was hot enough. Walking around the kitchen, Juliana found some cereal and milk, grabbing and placing them on the dining table. When she was grabbing the utensils needed, she dropped her spoon on the floor.

“Shit.” She whispered, hearing Valentina groaning.

“What time is it?” She asked, sitting up on the couch slowly and rubbing her neck to get rid of the soreness acquired during the past two nights.

Juliana felt guiltier the more Valentina showed signs of physical discomfort.

“It’s still early, you should sleep some more.” She said, hoping Valentina would go to their room to lay down on a proper sleeping surface.

“No, it’s okay,” She said, getting up from the couch “Good morning.” She continued with a smile.

“Good morning,” Juliana smiled back at Valentina “I’m making enough coffee for two. I don’t know if you drink coffee or anything.”

“I do.” Valentina said, her smile growing when she realized Juliana was doing something for her.

The older woman walked to their fridge, grabbing some containers and placed them on the table, taking a seat once everything was in place. Juliana walked back to the table, holding two mugs with coffee, placing them in front of each seat and sitting down.

“Thank you.” Valentina said.

The pair started having their meal in silence, things had changed between them after their interaction in the kitchen the day before. The silences were no longer oh-so-awkward, the couple could just sit together without Juliana needing to get away immediately. It wasn’t like everything had gotten back to normal but there sure was some progress.

“Is there anything you want to do today?” Valentina asked, taking a sip of her coffee.

“I thought maybe I could look through some stuff,” Juliana said “I think the doctor said this might help with everything.”

“She did,” Valentina remembered basically everything Juliana’s doctor had said “How is your head, by the way?”

“It still hurts.” Juliana answered with a sigh, as much as the pain was becoming familiar to her now, it was still extremely annoying.

Valentina sighed along. The doctor had said her headache could last for one to two weeks and there was nothing she could do about it besides giving Juliana painkillers every few hours.

“There’s a follow up this Monday,” Valentina started “Maybe the doctor can prescribe something else so you’re no longer in pain.”

“I think that’s just kind of what I have to go through.” Juliana shrugged.

After a brief silence, Valentina resumed the previous conversation.

“There are a bunch of pictures albums in a drawer in the living room,” She said “We could just go through them today.”

“Actually,” Juliana hesitated a little before going on “I told my mom I would go to her place so I could see everything that’s in there.”

“Oh,” Valentina felt disappointed. She knew she wasn’t included on those plans and she once again felt Juliana shutting her off “Ok.”

\---

“I don’t know, Guille. I’m just so confused.” Valentina said in a sad tone.

She didn’t want to be alone in her apartment when Juliana left for Lupita’s house, she already felt alone enough, there was no need for physical reassurance of that fact. Valentina called her brother as soon as her fiancée left so she could have some company.

Guille had been really worried about both girls ever since the accident had happened. He had seen Valentina many times during the time her girlfriend was at the hospital and he knew the older woman wasn’t taking the situation well at all. When she called him, after Juliana woke up, he knew what was coming next wasn’t going to be any easier.

“Vale, you’ve got to make sure you’re alright.” Guille said worriedly.

“How can I worry about myself when Juliana is going through so much?”

“You can’t just push what you’re feeling aside,” He answered “And you’re also going through a lot, Vale. The woman you love doesn’t remember she loves you.”

“Wow, thanks for reminding me.” Valentina said with an ironic laugh.

“C’mon, you know what I mean,” He defended himself “I’m on your side here. You have to do something, sis.”

“Guille, I can’t!” Valentina answered, growing more annoyed “She doesn’t need any other burden right now.”

“You’re not a burden, you’re her fiancée,” Guille started “Vale, you can’t just forget that you’re a person too. You’re being affected just as much as she is.”

“But there’s nothing I can do about it,” Valentina sighed, sadly “She’ll just shut me off once again.”

“You have to try,” He insisted “Talk to her.”

Valentina opened and closed her mouth many times before saying anything. She was scared of how her brother would react to her next words, and she didn’t know if she was ready to hear them herself.

“She doesn’t care.” Valentina whispered, tears starting to make their way down her cheeks when her thoughts were finally said out loud.

“That’s not true.”

Valentina couldn’t answer anymore, she was just crying thinking about everything that was going on. Guille wrapped his arms around his sister, trying to comfort her.

“Vale, It’s still Juliana,” He said “She’s not a bad person, she doesn’t want you to suffer. You just have to let her know you’re not ok.”

The sound of keys made Valentina jump from her brother’s arm and wipe her tears. Juliana entered the apartment, looking slightly confused once she saw Guille sitting on the couch.

“Hi.” She said with the shy tone she was using every time she saw someone she was supposed to know but didn’t recognize.

“Hi,” Guille said, getting up from the couch to greet Juliana with a kiss on her cheek “Uh, I’m Valentina’s brother.” He completed once he saw Juliana looked really confused.

“Oh,” Juliana said “Nice to meet you.”

“Ok, Vale. It was great seeing you but I have to go home now.” Guille said, leaving the apartment on his own, leaving Valentina sat alone.

Juliana soon sat next to the other girl and turned into her seat so she was facing her. The brunette had heard part of the conversation on the hallway and she wanted to show Valentina she cared about her without making it obvious that she’d heard the talk between the siblings.

“Hi,” She said, reaching for Valentina’s hand, that was laying next to her body, supporting her upper body “Are you ok?”

Valentina looked at Juliana, with a sad smile on her face. She turned her hand so she could actually hold the other girl’s hand.

“I’m good.” She said, her voice betraying her with a crack.

“Val, I’m sorry.” Juliana said, not knowing exactly what she was apologizing for but truly feeling guilty. She knew at that moment she was the reason for Valentina’s tears.

Valentina was trying really hard to not break down in front of Juliana but it was really hard. She missed her a lot and she didn’t know what to do about it even though the girl was sitting next to her.

“It’s okay.” She said even though she had just started crying again.

Juliana scooched closer to Valentina and opened her arms so that the older girl could fall into her embrace, which she did immediately, burying her face into her girlfriend’s neck and wrapping her arms tightly around her.

Once they separated, for the first time since Juliana had gotten back home, Valentina was the one to leave her alone.

“I’m sorry.” She said getting up from the couch and making her way to their room.

\---

Valentina was changing into her pyjamas when she heard Juliana knocking on the door before passing through it.

“I’m leaving don’t worry.” She said, quickly pushing her head through her shirt before starting to make her way out of the bedroom.

Juliana held her wrist carefully, stopping Valentina from walking away completely.

“Val, it’s not fair making you sleep on the couch, we should switch.”

“I’m not letting you sleep on the couch.” Valentina stated.

“But it’s your house too, it’s not fair!” Juliana argued, sounding like a teenager trying to convince her parents of something.

“Juliana, I’m not letting you sleep on the couch!” Valentina said, louder this time.

The younger woman let go of the other’s wrist, slightly surprised she had raised her voice at her. There was a moment of silence where neither of them moved.

“Well, the bed is big enough for both of us.” Juliana stated, breaking their silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope yall enjoyed it :)


	8. Nostalgia

_“Good morning” Juliana said, turning around so that she was facing Valentina and smiling at the older girl._

_“Good morning.” She answered moving closer to her girlfriend, wrapping an arm around her waist._

_Juliana moved even closer to Valentina, until their faces were inches apart. She lifted her hand to her cheek and ran her thumb through her skin softly._

_Valentina giggled and lowered her head, hiding on Juliana’s neck. It hadn’t been long since she moved into the other’s apartment and she still wasn’t over the bliss of waking up next to the love of her life every day._

_Juliana smiled wider and ran her hand through Valentina’s hair._

_“Qué?” She laughed lightly, when Valentina didn’t move from her spot._

_“Nothing.” She mumbled into her neck in response. Juliana could feel her smile when she answered her._

_“Tell me!” Juliana protested, playfully._

_“No.” She answered laughing._

_“Mi amor, but you know you can tell me anything,” Juliana teased “Don’t you trust me?”_

_Valentina finally moved, staring Juliana._

_“I just love waking up next to you.”_

_Juliana smiled, moving in for a kiss, but being stopped by Valentina’s hand on her mouth halfway._

_“Amor, morning breath.”_

_“Shut up!” Juliana said laughing._

_She basically attacked Valentina right after as a joke. The older girl started laughing and continued pushing away, until her laugh and moving tired her too much to keep fighting._

_Juliana then pressed a small kiss against her lips._

_“I win.”_

\---

Juliana woke up the next morning feeling warm air being blown onto her face. She waited a while to see if it would just go away until she realized waiting wouldn’t do anything. She opened her eyes to see Cora’s face inches away from hers. The puppy’s breathing had woken her up.

The woman groaned, she was still really tired, and that made the dog lick her face.

“No,” Juliana groaned, wiping the spot Cora had licked with the back of her hand “It’s too early, Cora.”

The puppy obeyed Juliana, jumping back to the floor. The woman started reaching for her phone when she finally felt the arm wrapped around her waist, keeping her from moving too much.

Juliana had completely forgotten Valentina had gone to sleep with her, on their bed. She didn’t dislike the feeling of having the older girl holding onto her, she’d actually quite enjoyed the feeling of Valentina pulling her closer, unconsciously, when she moved to grab her phone; but it still didn’t feel right.

She tried lifting Valentina’s arm as gently as she could without waking her up, but Juliana failed on that task. She heard Valentina groaning, meaning she was probably waking up.

Juliana panicked, not knowing what to do with the knowledge that Valentina would probably feel bad if she knew she was trying to push her away. She used the other girl’s brief moment of confusion from just waking up to pretend to be asleep

She heard Valentina sighing, but didn’t feel her moving. Juliana then heard her releasing a quiet chuckle and felt the lightest kiss being pressed on her shoulder before Valentina quickly got up from their bed.

Valentina was a very loving person, as Juliana had already realized. She took every opportunity she had to show affection for Juliana and yet the younger girl could still sense her holding back many times to make her more comfortable.

Juliana waited a few minutes before getting up from the bed herself and going to the kitchen, seeing Valentina preparing coffee once she got there.

“Hi.” Juliana said shyly.

“Good morning,” Valentina smiled widely at her girlfriend before frowning a little “Did I wake you up?”

“No, Cora did.” Juliana said with a smile.

“Oh, yeah,” Valentina laughed lightly “She’s like our weekend alarm.”

Juliana noticed how Valentina referred to them as a unit, but that didn’t really bother her. She was getting used to the idea that her life was shared with the other girl, and she didn’t hate that idea.

They sat down for breakfast, starting to eat in silence until Juliana broke it.

“Val?”

“Yeah?”

“You’ve told me about us and how our life was,” Juliana started, Valentina hummed as an incentive for her to keep going “But I feel like I don’t know you yet.”

“Oh” Valentina limited her words to that, slightly disappointed at what she had just heard.

That didn’t really go unnoticed by Juliana.

“I’m sorry, that was phrased badly,” She corrected herself, feeling a little embarrassed “I think I have to get to know you better.”

Valentina still looked a little confused, she had just woken up and her brain wasn’t working properly just yet. Juliana sighed before explaining herself again.

“I feel like ever since I got back, I don’t really know my life,” She started “But I’ve been trying to live it like nothing happened. I think I need to understand everything to actually start living it.”

Valentina nodded, she agreed with Juliana and was finally understanding what she wanted to say, but she let her girlfriend speak some more before stepping in.

“And you were a big part of my life,” Juliana said a little more shyly this time “So I need to know you.”

“Okay,” Valentina said, smiling at Juliana “What do you wanna know?”

Juliana panicked a little, she hadn’t really thought of how that part of the conversation. When she was planning what she’d say to Valentina, the night before, it all stopped when she could explain herself.

“Uh,” Juliana said, trying to think of something to ask “I don’t know.”

Valentina laughed lightly at the effort Juliana was making.

“Let me try to make it easier,” Valentina said, deciding to end the other woman’s torture “I’m Valentina Carvajal, I’m 23, I’m a journalist, I have two siblings,” Valentina started dumping random informations about her “What else do you want to know?”

“What did we talk about when we first met?” Juliana asked, figuring she could start from the same point she did three years ago.

\---

The talk they had brought Valentina a strong sense of nostalgia. Talking about happiness and family, hearing Juliana joke around and laugh again, it was comforting knowing she still had the same person beside her even after everything her girlfriend had gone through.

Juliana was also really happy about their talk. She felt like she was finally doing things the right way, in a way that made her start understanding her life. At that moment, for instance, she understood why she liked Valentina instead of just trying to force herself to do so.

“Well,” Juliana said, stretching her hand out to Valentina for a handshake in a playful manner “It was nice meeting you.”

Valentina laughed but shook her girlfriend’s hand either way.

“Nice meeting you too.”

“Val,” Juliana said in a serious tone, trying to get the other woman to look at her “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For helping me,” Juliana shrugged “For being so patient, I guess.”

“Juls, it’s what I have to do,” Valentina replied “You’re going through a lot.”

"So are you,” Juliana said, seriously “You lost someone because of something you weren’t involved in.

“I didn’t lose you.” Valentina mumbled, she sounded really worried. Thinking about losing Juliana, on any way possible, scared her.

“No, you didn’t,” Juliana confirmed quickly, placing her hand on Valentina’s arm in a comforting manner “What I mean is that you had to deal with the consequences of that accident in some way.”

Valentina was quiet for a while. She was feeling so much that she couldn’t say anything at that moment. The fear she felt when she heard about the accident, the loneliness of that week without Juliana, the sadness she felt once Lupita told her her fiancée had forgotten their relationship and now the relief she felt, with her finally opening up again; it all came back to her at once.

“Thank you for understanding me.” Valentina finally said, her words came with tears of every single emotion possible.

Juliana got up from her chair and extended her arm for Valentina to do the same. When she got up, the younger woman wrapped her in a tight hug. Valentina wrapped her arms around Juliana’s neck and allowed herself to cry silently. The brunette felt the other’s back shake with her tears. She knew then she had a friend in Valentina and it was no longer exclusively about Juliana recovering. It was about them both getting back up together.

“You don’t have to thank me,” Juliana whispered into the hug “It’s what I have to do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm really bad at answering comments but i really appreciate everything you write so thanks to every one who's been reading this story :)


	9. Photograph

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> again, not biologically accurate

Days went by and Juliana and Valentina kept on developing their friendship. The girls managed to create some sort of routine together, which was pretty normal to Valentina, who was already used to sharing all her days with Juliana; but a bit harder for the latter, who had always been very independent.

On the day after that significant moment that marked a new beginning for the couple, Juliana went back to the doctor to do a check-up. She still wasn’t allowed to go back to work but could start doing some related activities. As of her memory, the doctor just told her to kept trying some exercises at home to try to regain it.

Valentina, as the good girlfriend she was, never left a day slip by without showing Juliana a thousand pictures of the past years and made sure to tell her a story from their past in every meal. That was no longer something Juliana dreaded; she started enjoying her life once she kind of understood how she got there.

Juliana had begun admiring a lot the girl she lived with. Valentina was always so patient and didn’t force anything between them. She could tell she missed her life as it was, but she was very careful to try and make Juliana not notice anything.

The younger woman had also noticed Valentina’s traits extended far from just patience. She was caring, light spirited, not to mention drop dead gorgeous. Their relationship seemed to develop in a very natural way, which was something Juliana felt relieved for since she’d had troubles making friends and maintaining relationships before.

Valentina, on the other hand, was adapting pretty well to the situation. She learned to look past the immediate need to build their romantic relationship once again and starting to take baby steps, respecting Juliana’s limits. It was hard, but in a matter of a few days she began to see that the woman beside her was the same she’d always been.

She saw that Juliana still cared deeply for others, sometimes even more than she did for herself, that she was still the same funny woman, how her eyes sparkled the same when she was talking about something she was passionate about. There were so many things that calmed Valentina down in her partner, but her favorite was definitely that Juliana still looked at her the same way.

Actually, a lot of things were falling back in place. Juliana was starting to feel more comfortable with physical affection, just like it had happened when they’d first met, which was something that made Valentina extremely happy.

A bit after a week from Juliana coming back home, the couple were looking through pictures once again.

“Val, why do we have so many printed pictures?” Juliana asked.

It had occurred to her throughout her time back that it was weird to have multiple albums to look through.

“I don’t know,” Valentina started “I’ve just always loved actually having the pictures. My room back in my old house is filled with them.”

Juliana thought that made sense, considering the amount of portraits they had around the house.

“Where did you live before?”

“I lived with my family,” Valentina answered “My sister moved out a long time ago and now Guille is no longer there either, but we moved out around the same time.”

“So you lived with Guille and your parents?”

“Well, with my dad and my stepmom, yes.”

Juliana then realised that even though she had learned a lot about Valentina on the time they had spent together, she didn’t know much about the woman’s background. She had met her brother and she mentioned that she had another sibling, but until then she didn’t even know if it was a sister or a brother.

“Are your parents divorced?” Juliana asked, decided to get to know Valentina better.

“I lost my mom a long time ago.” Valentina mumbled.

Years could pass without her mother but every time she had to actually admit she was gone, Valentina felt down. When she talked about memories and moments, it didn’t bother her, because memories were always in the past; no matter if the person was dead or alive.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Juliana answered a bit awkwardly, not really knowing how to react.

“It’s okay,” Valentina smiled sadly “I was really young, it was a long time ago.”

The room was completely silent for a moment.

“She was great,” Valentina broke their silence with a small chuckle “She’s the one who got me into photography, actually.”

“Well, she did a great job.” Juliana affirmed.

She meant what she said. Not only did Valentina’s mom raise a great photographer, which Juliana understood going through the years worth of pictures, but she had also raised a great human, who she was growing to admire a lot. Valentina turned her head to Juliana, opening a soft smile.

“Thank you.” She answered, placing her hand on top of Juliana’s.

They went back to looking at the pictures, Juliana just grabbing random ones while Valentina was looking for the ones that actually had a story behind them. The older woman finally found something she thought was worth showing the other.

“Look,” She started, turning the picture slightly so that Juliana could see it with her “This one is in my family’s house at Valle.”

In the picture, Juliana was beaming at the camera on a big backyard. The house was showing in the back and it was also huge and very beautiful, it looked modern and clean.

“We used to go there a lot,” Valentina continued “You had just finished your fashion design course and we decided to take a weekend off.”

Valentina kept away the fact that, besides celebrating Juliana’s graduation, it was also the celebration of their first anniversary. She remembered those days vividly, they were so in love and the special day endorsed the feeling. Valentina sighed when she realized their third anniversary was actually coming up pretty soon.

“What?” Valentina said after a while.

She watched Juliana snatch the picture from her hand and frowning at it.

“It’s just…” Juliana said, hesitating before continuing; she didn’t want to raise false expectations “I think I remember this house.”

Valentina instantly got excited, but she hid it from her features before Juliana looked at her. She knew she might’ve just been confused, maybe she was mixing it up with a tv show she saw or something like that, but Valentina couldn’t help but raise her expectations.

The older woman started to think that the idea of revisiting places they frequented during their relationship was obvious. Visual memory was something strong, but sensory memory was even stronger. After all, Juliana hadn’t only seen those places, she had visited them, she experienced them.

“Maybe we should go there,” Valentina suggested, playing down her excitement “I think it could help.”

“Yes!” Juliana exclaimed. Hope started sparking inside her, maybe that was the way to get things back to normal once and for all.

“We’d have to wait until the weekend cause I have work,” Valentina said, reasoning their options “But maybe we could go to my family’s house, we spent a lot of time there.”

\---

Valentina parked her car on the driveway of the enormous house, laughing a little at the expression Juliana made once she got a proper look at the place.

Juliana was utterly shocked at the size of that house, she didn’t even think calling it a house made it justice, maybe she should just call it a mansion. At the same time she felt a little disappointed, if she were to remember any place from her life, that house would be it. There was no way she could forget that place, yet it didn’t feel familiar to her at all.

“Do you want to go inside?” Valentina asked, pulling Juliana out of her trance.

“Yes, sure.” She mumbled, already opening the car’s door.

Valentina rang the doorbell and the girls were quickly greeted by an older woman.

“Vale!” She exclaimed “How are you, mi niña? It’s been so long.”

“Yeah, I know,” Valentina said apologetically, hugging the older woman “I’m sorry, Chivis. The past weeks have been kind of busy.”

“Hello, Juliana.” She greeted the other, in a much more formal way.

“Hi.” She answered with a shy wave.

“Come in, girls,” Silvina said, stepping aside so the couple could enter the house “León and Lucía aren’t here right now, but they must be coming home soon.”

“Ok. Thank you, Chivis!” Valentina said, walking towards the living room, Juliana following close behind.

Juliana looked around the room mesmerized, but at the same time trying to force herself to remember that place. She gave up on that idea once she realized that it wasn’t working and decided to say something to break the silence in the room.

“Who was that?”

“That’s Silvina,” Valentina started, with a smile “She’s been working here basically my whole life.”

“Oh.” Juliana said very quietly.

The younger woman was starting to realize that her social status was much different from the girl she was supposedly engaged with. That idea made her a little uncomfortable.

“You know, we talked a lot about this,” Valentina stated, sensing Juliana’s concerns and remembering the begging of their relationship “I’m sorry if everything seems a bit intimidating, but this shouldn’t matter.”

Juliana wanted to argue on that, but she felt like she wasn’t intimate enough nor knew enough about Valentina’s life to put all their progress at risk. The brunette settled for just shutting herself off.

“Uh, maybe we should go upstairs.” Valentina could feel Juliana distancing herself, and at that moment she didn’t want to take any steps backwards; she thought maybe a room would be less intimidating than the whole house.

Juliana quietly followed Valentina upstairs, entering the room behind her girlfriend. Her head was hanging low and she basically only had a view of the wooden tiles on the ground, but when she entered the room she lift her head up and was hit with a stream of memories.

Nothing too concrete came to her mind, but she felt snippets of things that had happened there in the past. She could see herself sitting in front of the window, talking to Valentina, who was lying in her bed, she could smell a perfume that was really familiar to her, she could hear songs she had never heard before playing in the background and, what scared her the most, she could feel.

She could feel a lot of things, and it was very confusing. She felt comfort, she felt the air getting heavy as if there was a fight going on there, she felt happy and then sad. She felt arms wrapped around her and soft skin pressed against her lips.

“Juls?” Valentina called the other, looking concerned. “Is everything okay?”

Juliana couldn’t answer, she came back to reality but she felt exhausted and overwhelmed from the amount of emotions she had just gone through in what couldn’t have been more than five minutes. She looked back at Valentina, her eyes becoming watery but without any tear falling.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Valentina said, hesitantly walking towards Juliana, with the intention of pulling her into a hug but not wanting to overstep any boundary “Everything is alright.” She settled to just resting her hands on the sides of Juliana’s arms.

Juliana stood frozen in place for a little longer, until tears started actually rolling down her cheeks. She basically threw herself into Valentina’s embrace, allowing herself to cry.

Valentina wrapped her arms around Juliana’s waist and turned her head to kiss the top of her head. She didn’t really care if she was overstepping boundaries now, Juliana hardly ever cried even before the accident, she just wanted to comfort her.

The couple stayed silent on the embrace for a while, the only noises filling the room being Valentina’s occasional whispers of reassurance and Juliana sniffing.

After a few minutes passed, Juliana loosened her grip around the other woman, separating their embrace and wiping her eyes with the back of her hands.

“Are you okay?” Valentina asked quietly, not distancing herself too much.

Juliana nodded before answering.

“It’s just that a lot came to my mind,” She started, her voice cracking a couple times through the short sentence “I didn’t it would be like this.”

Valentina was still a little confused as to what Juliana was referring to but she decided to just not ask, that way she wouldn’t add up to whatever her girlfriend was feeling.

“We could go back home if you want to.” Valentina suggested in a soft tone.

“No, it’s alright,” Juliana answered, finally becoming a bit more stable “I just need some rest, is it ok if i lay down here?”

“Sure.” Valentina answered not sure what to do herself.

She waited for the other woman to lay down before starting to make her way out of the room. She figured Juliana could use some space, but the brunette stopped her.

“Val?”

“Yes?”

“Can you stay with me?” Juliana was still very overwhelmed and tired from whatever had just happened, but Valentina brought her some sense of comfort, especially now that she was starting to remember some feeling she provoked in her.

“Of course.” Valentina whispered with a smile before making her way to the other side of the bed and laying down.

To her surprise, Juliana shuffled closer to her until her head was on top of her chest. The brunette wrapped her arm around Valentina’s waist and closed her eyes. After the older woman’s shock passed, she started running her fingers down Juliana’s hair, who soon fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry i'm not updating as often, everything is just a bit chaotic. anyways hope you enjoy this chapter, there's still a lot to come ;)


	10. Year 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i know val is not necessarily in the right mindset but it's character development please stick by me lol

_“Two years went by really fast.” Juliana stated, lifting their joined hands so that Valentina could spin._

_The couple were celebrating their anniversary on Juliana’s apartment so they would have little more privacy. Valentina insisted to dance with Juliana, she wanted to prove that the classes she’d given her long ago were still in her mind._

_“And yet it still feels like I’ve known you for a lifetime.” Valentina whispered, bringing their bodies together once again._

_Juliana blushed and looked down, with a flustered smile plastered on her face._

_“Mi amor, you have to look me in the eyes,” Val said, tilting her chin up softly, not letting go of her other hand “You’re the one who told me that.”_

_Juliana laughed softly and pressed her forehead against Valentina’s._

_“You’re a great student.” She teased, placing a small kiss on Valentina’s lips before resuming the dancing._

_They kept on dancing in silence for a while, getting lost in each other’s touch. Juliana kept her hand running up and down Valentina’s back, occasionally grabbing a strand of her long hair and playing with it, meanwhile Valentina just let her hand rest on Juliana’s waist and kissed her in random places every now and then._

_They were so lost that they didn’t even notice that the song had stopped playing and they were just dancing to their own created rhythm._

_Juliana stopped after a while, not distancing herself from her girlfriend, but still earning a whiny protest. She ignored it and placed her hands on Valentina’s cheeks, stroking them softly with her thumbs and joining their foreheads again._

_Valentina smiled and closed her eyes, enjoying their intimacy. She felt Juliana separating their foreheads just enough so that she could place a kiss on the tip of her nose. She then felt Juliana placing small soft kisses all over her face and released a happy sigh._

_When Juliana stopped, Valentina opened her eyes, meeting with a deep loving gaze. She smiled at her girlfriend, blushing, those brown eyes always got the best of her._

_“I love you, Val,” Juliana stated in a whisper, continuing to stroke her cheeks “So much.”_

_Valentina smiled harder and closed the small distance between them by pulling Juliana in for a kiss._

_“These have been the best years of my life.” Valentina said, almost in a whisper._

\---

Their anniversary was getting closer with every day that passed. Valentina had planned bigger things for them before everything had happened, but those were not a possibility due to their situation. The main problem was that Juliana didn’t even know when their anniversary was.

Valentina couldn’t bring herself to tell Juliana their special day was coming up. Even though they were much closer now and were recreating their bond, things weren’t back to the way it was. Juliana was making progress with remembering things, which was a relief to both of them, but she still didn’t feel comfortable enough to just resume their relationship. Those were unspoken words, but Valentina could see it in her eyes.

The whole situation was hard to deal with, which was no surprise for Valentina, but she couldn’t help but think everything was unfair. Valentina deep down felt like what she was feeling was ugly, she would stick by Juliana no matter what happened or how long she had to wait, she shouldn’t be thinking how unfair the situation was for her, she had to help her partner.

Valentina was home alone, on Juliana’s second follow up she was given the heads up to go back to work, considering that she knew the field and was starting to get her memories back. It was the end of the day and Valentina had decided to go home early that day, her thoughts were consuming her and she couldn’t really focus on other things.

She felt guilty for having cried the past 20 minutes when everything was falling back into place, but she missed having Juliana by her side like she had her before and the proximity to the celebration of their relationship didn’t really help. She started wiping the tears from her eyes with the back of her hands when the small puppy jumped up on the couch, laying down beside her.

“Hi, Cora.” Valentina said, placing her hand on the puppy’s back.

Cora looked up to her owner and whined, sensing her sadness.

“It’s ok, baby.” The puppy continued whining, releasing a small bark after Valentina’s sentence.

Valentina started to rub Cora’s back right before the dog suddenly got excited and jumped up on her lap. Cora was a very bright puppy and she always knew how to cheer her owners up.

She licked Valentina's face and kept jumping in place, making Valentina fall behind on the couch.

“It’s ok, Cora,” She repeated, now laughing with the puppy’s excitement. The dog settled down a little and the woman placed a kiss on top of her head “Good girl.” Valentina cooed.

The noise of keys brought the small dog back to her previous state of bliss. She ran to the door releasing high pitched barks while Juliana entered the room. Valentina enjoyed the opportunity to sit up straight again.

Juliana kneeled so she could play a bit with Cora, who was jumping on her with excitement.

“Hi, baby.” She said in a baby voice, scratching her back.

The puppy released a firmer bark, startling Juliana a little. She then ran a little bit towards the kitchen but stopped to look behind to make sure that her owner was following her. Juliana got up from the floor and started following the dog, who made her way around the couch.

Then Juliana saw Valentina who, even though had a big smile on her face at that moment, looked like she had just been crying.

“Hi, Val.” She said softly, sitting next to Valentina on their couch and smiling at her.

Valentina’s smile widened once Juliana leaned towards her in a half hug and she placed her hand around the other’s waist.

“Hi, Juls.” Valentina answered, squeezing Juliana just a little tighter because she knew that interaction was about to end.

Cora jumped back on the couch, lying on both of the girl’s legs. Juliana subconsciously placed her free hand on the dog’s back, stroking it softly.

“How was your day?” Juliana asked, surprising Valentina when she didn’t remove her arm from around her shoulder.

“It was good.”

“Ok,” Juliana said, turning her head a little bit so she could look at Valentina properly “And why are you lying?”

Valentina released a small chuckle.

“How do you know I’m lying?” She teased, still smiling. She loved the fact that their interactions were slowly and weirdly going back to normal.

“You’re a bad liar.” Juliana said, smiling back at her.

“No, I’m not!” Valentina laughed shoving Juliana away, but keeping a hand in her arm.

Cora barked at Valentina as a protest, making the couple laugh before dedicating some time to play with the dog. After many pets and affirmations in baby voice, the puppy jumped off their laps and ran to the small porch.

A silence fell upon them, where they just smiled at each other. Both girls couldn’t help but notice how different things were from when Juliana first came back home. Back then, an awkward silence would fill the room every five minutes, if not less, and one of them just had to start word vomiting so that things wouldn’t be so weird. Now they could just enjoy each other’s company in silence.

“But seriously,” Juliana broke their silence after a little bit “What’s wrong?” She asked, taking one of Valentina’s hand on her own.

“It’s nothing serious.” Valentina answered. She didn’t want things to get awkward between them.

“Val, I know you want to help me,” Juliana started, grabbing Valentina’s other hand “But I want to help you too. That’s what friends do.”

Valentina sighed sadly at the sound of that last sentence, looking down at their joined hands.

“But I don’t want to upset you.” She said weakly.

“You’re upsetting me by not telling me what’s going on.”

“Ok,” Valentina started, sighing before hesitantly continuing her speech “Our anniversary is coming up.”

“Oh.”

“That’s what I meant. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to pressure you. You don’t have to…”

“When is it?” Juliana interrupted Valentina’s nervous rambling.

“Monday.”

“Monday? That sucks,” Juliana said “How are we going to celebrate it? That’s the worst day possible.”

“Juls, we don’t have to celebrate it,” Valentina said in a low tone “I don’t want to force you to do anything. We’ll just treat it as another normal day.”

“What?” Juliana answered “No way, we’ve been together for three years. We’re celebrating it.”

“There’s no point to it,” Valentina said, her eyes filling up with tears “You don’t even remember being with me.”

“Val, I’m not taking that away from you,” Juliana started “And when I fully get my memory back I’d be really mad at my mad at myself for letting this day just slip by.”

Valentina looked up at Juliana, slightly hopeful. She felt her girlfriend taking a strand of her hair and tucking it behind her ear. That earned a teary smile from Valentina. Juliana moved her hand from Valentina’s hair to her cheek, wiping the single tear that had fallen from her eyes with her thumb and then retracting her hand.

“Juls, we really don’t have to do anything.” Valentina clarified.

“I want to do something.”

Valentina opened a big smile and lowered her head to Juliana’s shoulder, hiding her face on the crook of her neck. Juliana smiled and put her arms around Valentina in a slightly awkward hug. She turned her head and placed a kiss on the top of her head. Valentina laughed with the pure bliss she was feeling at the moment. She’d be able to put some of her plans in action after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi guys, it's been a bit harder for me to update frequently cause i've been really busy (even with the whole social distancing thing) so maybe chapters won't come every week but i'll try my hardest to update this whenever i can! hope yall enjoyed this chapter :)


	11. Promise

Juliana woke up earlier than usual that Monday. She knew Valentina didn’t expect much from her on that day, but she had different plans. Usually, Valentina would be ready for work right before Juliana woke up. But on the day of their third anniversary, the younger woman was out of the house before the other even woke up.

She had the whole day sketched out in her mind and she just wanted everything to go as she planned on the short time she had to think about it. Those plans began with the two of them being apart, mainly because Juliana wanted it to be more special when they actually got to see each other.

As much as she hadn’t found a way to express it properly, Juliana’s feelings for Valentina had developed a lot in the few weeks they were together. It all started as a strange mixture of pity and guilt with strangement, these feelings started to turn into appreciation and fondness as she got to know Valentina better. Ever since Juliana had had her first memory, her feelings turned into something completely different, appreciation became admiration, and then there was something else she just couldn’t quite name.

Valentina made her feel things she didn’t remember experiencing before. It was weird for Juliana when she first started feeling her heart beating faster because of one look or the extreme relief that came to her when she hugged the other girl.

It took her some time to process and accept everything, but Juliana was finally comfortable enough to say that she had a crush on her fiancée.

Juliana wasn’t one to do grand gestures, but she figured the situation demanded something a little out of her comfort zone. It’s not like she had something really big planned, but she knew Valentina wouldn’t want to scare her by doing something big, so Juliana would have a little more control over whatever they did.

Her string of thoughts were interrupted by her phone ringing. Juliana grabbed the device picking it up instantly once she saw it was Valentina.

“Hi, Val.” She said with a smile on her face.

“Good morning,” Valentina started, still sounding tired “Is everything ok? I just woke up and you weren’t here.”

“Yeah, I just set up breakfast with my mom today.” Juliana explained.

“Oh,” Valentina said sounding a bit disappointed.

Valentina could only think about how she should’ve expected that Juliana would forget their anniversary, they didn’t even bring up the subject after that night, after all.

“It’s like, 7 AM.” Valentina said feeling a little confused, she couldn’t think of anywhere that would be open at that time.

“I know, I’m going over to her place,” Juliana explained “She has a full day today so i had to meet her early.”

“Oh, ok,” Valentina answered “Are you there yet?”

“No, I’m getting there right now. I took an uber.”

“Let me know when you get there,” Valentina said, to which Juliana answered with a hum “Say hi to your mom for me.”

Juliana hung up after guaranteeing that Lupe would be hearing her regards.

The car parked in front of Lupita’s building. Maybe Juliana hadn’t told her she was coming, and she definitely hadn’t told her mother that she was going there _at 7 AM_ but she knew Lupe wouldn’t care once she heard about the progress her daughter was making with Valentina. She sighed before ringing to her mother’s apartment.

“Qué?” Lupita answered, sounding extremely annoyed after a few minutes of ringing.

“Má, can I come up?”

“Oh, Juli! Of course you can.” The older woman said in a much happier tone. She had kept in constant contact with Juliana ever since the accident happened, but few were the times she actually got to see her daughter because of her own crazy work schedule.

Once Juliana entered the apartment, her mother enveloped her in a tight hug.

“How are you?” Lupita asked pulling away from the hug after a while.

“I’m fine, Má” Juliana answered with a chuckle; Lupita had sounded a bit desperate when the first question came out of her mouth.

“Panchito and the kids have already left, so it’s just you and me,” Lupe said knowing that would make her daughter feel more comfortable “Have you had breakfast?”

\---

When the women had already finished their meal, which went on only with small talk and no relevant subjects; they remained sat on the table. Lupita was very eager to ask Juliana about how everything was going with Valentina, but she was also very hesitant because she didn’t know how their relationship was going and she didn’t want to upset her daughter.

“Má?” Juliana called after a little period of silence, earning a small nod from her mother “Did you know that today was our anniversary?”

Lupe was caught a bit off guard, she didn’t expect Juliana to be the one to bring up any subject related to Valentina.

“No, mija.” Lupita said wondering why Juliana thought she would have that information.

Juliana sighed, which worried the other woman a little bit. She figured that the couple wouldn’t have gone completely back to normal by that time, but were they so bad to the point that Juliana was sad about their anniversary?

“I wanted to do something nice for Valentina,” Juliana started, feeling a bit awkward. She had never had many talks about significant others or romantic gestures with her mother before “Nothing too big, I just wanted her to feel like things are back into place.”

“Are they?” Her mother asked, surprised with the amount of progress the couple had made.

“We’re getting there.” Juliana said very quietly, blushing slightly.

“Juli, that’s amazing!” Lupita almost jumped out of her chair with excitement “Do you know what you’re going to do?” She asked, sounding like a teenager talking to her best friend.

“I think so,” Juliana said laughing at her mother’s reaction “I just thought it would be a better surprise if she only saw me then.”

“So you’re planning a big surprise?” Lupita asked getting more excited with each sentence her daughter said.

“No, Ma,” Juliana started “I wanted to do something simple, I just want it to be special.”

“Do you know what you’re going to do?”

“I have an idea, yes,” Juliana said with a smile “I’m just going to need your help on a little something.”

\---

“Lupe, where are you taking me?”

“You’ll see.” She answered with a smirk.

Valentina was really worried when she received a phone call from her girlfriend’s mother saying she needed her to meet her immediately. She didn’t expect to be asked to jump in a car for a surprise right when she met with the woman.

It was near the end of the day, the sun was still up but you could tell it would only be there for a little while longer. Valentina spent the whole day debating on whether or not she should do something about her and Juliana’s anniversary, it seemed like the other woman had forgotten about it and she didn’t want to be the one to bring it up.

She was confused once the car stopped in front of a park she knew very well. She looked at the other woman, looking for an explanation.

“Go on.” Lupita said, nodding her head towards the door on a request for Valentina to leave the car.

The younger woman was still very confused, but when Lupita kept on silently asking for her to leave with a huge smile on her face, she decided it would be easier if she didn’t question what was happening and just did as she said.

A pleasing breeze welcomed Valentina into her walk on the park. She stopped in some places, making no specific path; she just let her mind take her wherever the good memories were. After a while, she finally decided to face the place she was scared to go; her favorite part of that park was the spot she had met Juliana without a doubt, but she feared her memories would hurt her. As she approached the bench that meant so much to her, she saw a figure sitting there. The closer she got, the more convinced she got that it was actually Juliana.

“What are you doing here?” She asked with a small smile, stopping in front of her girlfriend once she reached her.

“I just thought it would be a good place to spend our anniversary.” Juliana answered, looking up at Valentina.

Valentina’s smile widened when Juliana extended her hand for her to grab. Once she did, the brunette interlocked their fingers and pulled lightly on her hand for her to sit by her side. Valentina obliged, resting her head on Juliana’s shoulder when she was already sat.

“It’s an amazing place.” Valentina whispered, trying to control the overflow of emotions that came to her.

She felt Juliana lightly drop her head on top of her own and sighed contently. The younger woman was nervous, she knew whatever she did next would be taken well by Valentina, but she couldn’t help but be scared.

Juliana brought their joined hands up to her lips and kissed Valentina’s lightly, dropping them back to her lap once she did. The blue eyed girl looked up to get a better look at her girlfriend, who looked back at her. They sat quietly staring at each other for a few seconds before Valentina broke their silence.

“It’s gonna get dark soon.” She said, almost in a whisper.

“We’ll go home then.” Juliana answered in the same tone.

Valentina released a quiet chuckle and nodded against the other’s shoulder, closing her eyes to allow herself to really feel the moment. She felt the breeze that was still blowing lightly, she heard crickets on the almost empty park, she smelled Juliana’s perfume. And then she felt Juliana stroking her cheek lightly with her free hand.

She turned her head to Juliana and found her staring back at her. Their faces were so close to each other’s that Valentina was scared she wouldn’t be able to control herself like she had been for the past weeks.

“We should go home,” Valentina whispered, her voice cracking mid-sentence while her eyes filled up with tears. It hurt her knowing she couldn’t do anything, but she had to respect Juliana’s limits and she would, no matter how much it affected her.

“Val.” Juliana protested with a whisper, her hand still holding Valentina’s face.

“Juls, I don’t want to force you into anything.” Valentina said, tears finally rolling down her cheek.

“I know.” Juliana said, wiping away her girlfriend’s tears.

Valentina nodded, feeling slightly disappointed and getting ready to get up. As soon as Valentina tried to move, though, Juliana closed the small distance between them, placing a soft kiss on her lips.

And then Valentina suddenly felt nothing. Nothing but Juliana. She gave in, letting herself be kissed by her girlfriend after what felt like an eternity spent apart.

But then she came back to her senses, she knew what she was doing was wrong, she couldn’t let Juliana feel pressured because of the occasion or because she felt like Valentina missed her. Tears were still making their way down her cheeks when she pulled away from the kiss.

“Juls,” She said, feeling her heart beating fast against her chest “I want you to respect your space, but you can’t do this to me.”

Juliana looked confused when Valentina began to sob silently, but she instantly pulled her closer, involving her in a hug. After a while holding the other girl, Juliana started to feel Valentina’s rejection weigh in on her.

“Did I do something wrong?” Juliana asked, starting to feel overwhelmed with emotions herself.

Valentina shook her head, hugging Juliana tighter.

“No,” She whispered, pulling away from their hug “I just can’t control myself like this.”

“Val, I’m not asking you to do that,” Juliana explained, feeling slightly hurt “I don’t want you to do that.”

Valentina looked at Juliana, feeling a bit more hopeful when she grabbed both her hands on her own. The older woman looked down at their joined hands and then looked back at Juliana.

“Juls, I want you to be sure,” she said in a serious tone “I can’t take it if you distance yourself again after this.”

Juliana smiled and barely let Valentina finish her sentence before she let go of her hands, holding her face instead, and crashing their lips together once again. This time she felt Valentina relaxing and wrapping her arms around her.

“I won’t,” Juliana said once they parted, lifting up her pinky to lock it with Valentina’s “I promise.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok i was very scared to publish this chapter (still am lmao) cause idk if you're gonna think it wasn't the right timing and if yall were actually gonna like it but yeah, here it is. hope you enjoyed it, please let me know how you feel about it :)


	12. Amor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just a little gay panic and some fluff

_Valentina wrapped her pinky around Juliana’s sealing their promise and smiled when the younger woman emphasized it with her words. Without letting go of Juliana’s hand, she lowered their hands, joining them properly. She raised her other hand to Juliana’s cheek, stroking it lightly with her thumb and letting it rest on the back of her neck._

_Juliana leaned into her touch, closing her eyes. Everything that had happened had finally dawned on her, making her blush a little with embarrassment. She didn’t regret anything she had done but she still didn’t know how to deal with a romantic relationships, she hadn’t had many shots at it before._

_She opened her eyes quickly, meeting Valentina’s eyes staring back at her, then she quickly released a silent chuckle and threw herself into Valentina’s arms, hiding her face on her shoulder. Juliana heard the other woman laughing softly before wrapping her arms around her and placing light kisses on the top of her head._

_Juliana sighed into their embrace, being with Valentina brought her a strong sense of relief, it almost felt familiar. After a couple minutes, she finally let go of Valentina, wanting to say something to her, but stopping on her tracks once she saw the other was crying._

_“Are you okay?” Juliana asked, concerned._

_“Yes,” Valentina laughed through her tears, wiping her eyes with her hands “It’s just happy tears.”_

_Juliana laughed a little. It was impressive to her how sensitive Valentina was, she was positive she had never met anyone so in touch with her emotions before, but that was something she really admired on the other girl._

_“Do you want to go home?” Valentina asked after a while, considering that it was starting to get dark._

_Juliana nodded in response, so they both got up from the bench and walked side by side in a comfortable silence. They walked until they reached somewhere they could actually get into a taxi to go back to their place._

_After giving the driver the instructions to their house, they sat in silence for a little bit before Juliana sneaked her hand to the middle sit. Valentina grabbed her hand with a smile, understanding her girlfriend’s silent request, and held onto it until they arrived home and had to leave the car._

_\---_

Juliana woke up on an empty bed, which was pretty regular for a Tuesday morning. She turned off her alarm clock before rolling around in bed, covering her face with the blanket. She was still in a weird state of mind, somewhere between asleep and awake, before a memory came to her mind.

It was memories of soft and cherished moments with Valentina, the only difference was that those weren’t from before the accident, they had all taken place on the previous night.

She felt a blush rise to her cheek as she hid herself completely under the blankets. Juliana was happy, being with Valentina made her feel new things, she felt like a teenager thinking about her first crush. She had feelings for people before, but nothing that ever made her go out of her way to actually be with the person. Things with Valentina were different.

At the same time, Juliana was a little scared of facing Valentina after their anniversary. She felt silly cause she knew that that wasn’t technically a new relationship, they had just celebrated their third year together; but she didn’t know how to act around the other woman anymore.

They had spent all the evening together on the previous day and things didn’t feel all that awkward, with few moments as exceptions. But that was a new day and, even though it was still early in the morning, both women had a little bit of time to spend by themselves and process everything that had happened.

The situation was different on this new moment, or at least that was what it felt like for Juliana; she didn’t know how Valentina would expect her to act and she honestly didn’t know what to expect from Valentina either. Juliana remembered the promise she had made the other evening, she said she wouldn’t distance herself from Valentina, but she felt a little shy now. After all, that was a whole new beginning for her.

Juliana sighed before getting up from the bed, having decided that she’d just let things happen, which was something she wasn’t really used to. when she reached the main room, she found Valentina gathering her things, ready to leave for work.

At first, the older woman didn’t notice the other’s presence, leaving Juliana free to have a little moment of slight panic. Juliana felt the blush come back up to her face as she thought of their situation; Valentina was all dressed up and ready for work meanwhile Juliana only had her pyjamas, making her feel even more embarrassed. She didn’t really understand what was happening, that was a scenario she had faced everyday for the past weeks, yet it somehow felt different now.

“Oh, hi!” Valentina said after finishing to gather her things, finally noticing Juliana’s presence “I didn’t see you there.”

“Hi.” Juliana finally answered, after a few seconds of silence.

Both girls stood still where they were, even though that was around eight feet away from each other. Valentina was a bit hesitant facing the whole situation, she had been thinking what to do when she met with Juliana for the whole morning. She really wanted the previous day to mean things were just back to normal, but she knew that probably wouldn’t happen.

“Uh,” The sound escaped Valentina’s mouth and she suddenly felt the urge to say something to break their silence, “I was about to leave, I just have to grab a few things I forgot in the room and then I’ll go.”

Valentina would keep going if it weren’t for Juliana’s small nervous chuckle. She released a nervous laugh-like noise herself before pointing to the hallway, indicating she was going away. She started making her way, being dangerously close to Juliana halfway there.

When she entered the room, Valentina sighed. She grabbed the things she needed and shoved them in her purse before leaving again. This time she stopped next to Juliana.

Juliana turned her body to face her girlfriend, who could feel the nervousness exuding from her body. Valentina carefully placed a strand of Juliana’s hair behind her ear and she felt her relaxing a little.

“You don’t have to be nervous.” She said, still playing with Juliana’s hair.

Juliana nodded, looking back at Valentina before wrapping her arms around her waist, still feeling a bit hesitant, but she managed to relax completely when Valentina hugged her back. The taller woman turned her head enough to place a kiss on top of her girlfriend’s.

“I really do have to go though.” Valentina said against Juliana’s hair, earning a laugh from her.

She laughed too and for a moment everything felt like it had fallen back into place.

“Ok,” Juliana said loosening her grip on Valentina’s waist.

With a sudden wave of confidence, Juliana leaned forward and placed a small kiss on Valentina’s lips. The older woman broke into a huge smile and kept herself close to Juliana. “Have a great day.”

Juliana said, separating their embrace because she didn’t want Valentina to be late.

“You too, mi amor.” Valentina said, letting the pet name slip by accident.

Juliana froze in place to the sound of Valentina’s words, who just left quickly after realizing her mistake.

\---

Juliana’s day was technically like any other. After Valentina left, she got ready and left for work. She did the same thing she did every day and went back home at the same time she always did. But that day felt different; maybe because she spent the whole day thinking about Valentina.

She constantly thought back to when Valentina called her _mi amor_ and she just blushed every time. She felt a little dumb, that was such a simple thing but it made a huge impact on her anyway. Juliana wasn’t bothered by it at all, she was a bit surprised and felt a bit shy afterwards, but she had actually loved hearing Valentina say that.

When she got home, she immediately headed to her office to try to keep her mind distracted and maybe make up for the week she spent away from work. She didn’t know how much time had passed when she heard a knock on the door.

“Come in.” Juliana said without stopping what she was doing.

Cora was the first enter the room, running around in circles, making Juliana laugh.

“You don’t let her in that much, she gets excited.” Valentina said stepping into the room with a smile.

The puppy jumped into the chair placed in the corner of the room, walking a circle before falling onto it.

“Scooch,” Valentina said to the dog, walking towards the chair and lifting Cora up before sitting where she was and placing her on her lap, “How are you?” Valentina directed her gaze to Juliana, still patting the small dog on her lap.

“Good,” Juliana answered, smiling widely and spinning her chair so that she was facing them “And you?”

“I’m good,” Valentina sighed, pausing a little before continuing to speak “I’m sorry about earlier. I’m just very used to it and it slipped. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable.”

Juliana smiled and rolled her chair across the room so she was closer to the other woman. When she got to the place she wanted, she started mindlessly patting Cora before answering.

“Val, you don’t have to apologize,” She said, looking up after playing with the puppy for a few seconds “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I know,” Valentina started with a sigh “But i didn’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

“You didn’t,” Juliana said, placing her hand on top of Valentina’s, who was scratching the puppy’s back “You just caught me a bit off guard.”

Valentina looked up at Juliana, smiling fondly at her while she stopped playing with Cora so that she could hold her girlfriend’s hand properly. She made a move with her other hand to touch Juliana’s cheek, but stopped when the puppy growled and tried to bite it.

“Cora, no!” Valentina pointed sternly at her face, while Juliana started laughing.

“She just needs a little love,” Juliana said picking up the dog from the other woman’s lap and hugging her, “Isn’t that right, bebé?” She continued with a baby voice, placing kisses on top of her head.

“No, Juls!” Valentina censored the woman “She’ll think what she did was fine now.”

“Val, she just wants some attention,” Juliana laughed, turning the puppy to Valentina and pouting “Look at her.”

The puppy also made a face at Valentina, who soon gave in with a laugh and started playing with the puppy too.

“You’re adorable,” She cooed, placing a kiss on her head and then kissing Juliana’s cheek “You too.”

Juliana blushed before gasping, faking disbelief.

“Did you just compare me to a dog?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the long wait guys :( I spent a long time writing the rest of the night of their anniversary but i didn't feel like it fit too much with the story and they weren't super on character. if yall want it i can post it separately as a one shot cause it's just very fluffy (like for real, it's a bit too cheesy) so let me know if you'd like that :)


	13. 1812

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like i don't say this enough but i'd really like to thank everyone for the support i've been getting while writing this fic. i always read the comments and they make me super happy every time, so thank you :)

Valentina felt her life falling back in place. Things weren’t exactly as they were before, but she felt the nostalgia of walking through the same path she’d walked with Juliana before and, to her, that meant that their relationship was going in the right direction. Sometimes she’d catch themselves accidentally repeating scenarios they’d been through in the past and would burst out laughing, leaving Juliana completely confused.

Even though she welcomed that familiarity with an open heart, she had to acknowledge that so many new things were being brought to their relationship. Juliana was still the same person, of course, but Valentina understood that it must feel a little weird knowing you’re supposed to end up with someone; that made the younger woman a little bit more shy, a side she hadn’t really seen before.

Juliana wasn’t the most open person in the world, actually she was far from that, but Valentina would’ve never described her girlfriend as shy before. She was the one to approach Valentina and she found Juliana quite good at talking to other people; but after the accident she’d definitely been shy, something Valentina quite enjoyed watching.

Valentina often wondered if their relationship would be exactly as it was before when Juliana fully regained her memory and she didn’t really consider that a possibility. Even if she hadn’t lost part of her memories in the accident, their relationship would’ve changed at the prospect of her losing Juliana. Besides that, there was now this whole new aspect to their story; a period where Valentina was fully conscious of everything they’d been through and Juliana being clueless to how her life came to that.

With this new beginning to their relationship, Valentina felt relief over everything. She didn’t want to admit it to anyone, but it was visible that the whole situation drained her energy. Now that she’d gotten that bit of her life back, she could let herself be more like she actually was when around Juliana. 

“Vale, I’m really glad things are going well.” Guille said

It was the weekend after their third anniversary, marking five days from when they resumed their romantic relationship. Valentina had finally decided to go out with her brother, who had been nagging her about meeting up for a while now, taking him out to lunch on a restaurant they went to a lot when they were children.

“Yeah, me too.” Valentina answered with a shy smile.

“I was worried about you, Vale.” Her brother stated seriously.

“What do you mean?” She frowned.

“C’mon, sis,” Guille started “You were wrecked, you weren’t being yourself for the past month now.”

“Guille, you know there was a lot going on.” Valentina muttered feeling slightly offended by her brother’s words.

“I know, Vale. I’m not blaming you,” He tried explaining himself “But I was still worried.”

Silence filled the air as Valentina tried to process what her brother meant without being able to think of anything that wasn’t hurtful.

Guille sighed as he realised he wasn’t transmitting the idea he actually meant to.

“I’m sorry, I expressed myself badly,” He tried to redeem himself “We’ve been through a lot in our lives and that always changes people. Now you’ve been through another rough patch and of course I was worried, you’re my little sister and no one should have to go through what you and Juliana have been through.” Guille carried on with the explanation when he saw that Valentina wasn’t feeling so attacked “I’m just happy you could pick yourself up again.”

“Aw,” Valentina teased “You love me.”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” Guille took a bite off his sandwich before continuing with a mouth full of food “You’re still extremely annoying.”

“Hey!” Valentina leaned across the table so she could slap her brother’s arm.

“It’s nice seeing you being yourself again,” Guille said after swatting Valentina’s hand away “You know you’re someone outside of your relationship too, right?” He said more seriously.

“I know,” Valentina said “I guess that’s just easy to forget sometimes.”

\---

Valentina thought about the conversation she’d had with her brother on her way back home; she knew the whole subject was sparked by something. She just had always been extremely affected by the situations that surrounded her, but that was something acceptable. It was her life, after all.

During the drive home, it came to Valentina’s mind that it really was okay to be affected by all the things that happened in her life, but she had always let that dictate who she was. The good times in her life were when she actually went on the journey of getting to know herself, and maybe she just hadn’t finished it yet. Thankfully, she could feel good times coming back to her life.

Valentina felt reassured of that when she stepped inside her apartment and just felt like she was home, and not overwhelmed by everything that was going on. She walked around the main space of the house before stepping outside to the small porch, that over time had became Cora’s little temple. She breathed in deeply, being invaded by the incredible sensation that the air was lighter.

She walked back inside of the apartment after a few minutes, heading towards the room when she found the puppy sleeping in front of Juliana’s office’s closed door. She grabbed her phone to take a picture to add on to her Cora album before deciding to knock on Juliana’s door.

“Come in.”

“Hi.” Valentina said after walking up to Juliana’s chair and placing her hands on her girlfriend’s shoulder.

Juliana lifted one of her hands to cover Valentina’s and looked up at the taller woman.

“Hi,” She answered leaning back into Valentina’s body “How was lunch?”

Valentina bent down and placed a kiss on Juliana’s head before answering.

“It was good,” She said “Guille says we all have to hang out sometime.”

“You, me and him?” Juliana asked.

“And Renata.” Valentina answered, walking across the room to take a sit.

“Renata?” Juliana rolled her chair closer to Valentina’s sit as she spoke.

“His wife.” Valentina explained.

A silence filled the room. Even though they were making progress with their relationship, Valentina’s main concern was still to make Juliana feel comfortable, so she hadn’t really been making any moves on anything, letting Juliana have the upper lead on their interactions.

Juliana rolled her chair even closer before grabbing both of Valentina’s hand in her own and letting them rest on her lap, looking down at them

“Val,” She said reluctantly and sighed to try and gain some courage before continuing to speak “I’ve remembered some things.”

“That’s awesome,” Valentina’s eyes widened with excitement before she realised that Juliana seemed to nervous for it to be positive “Was it something bad?”

“No,” Juliana chuckled, still looking down “I don’t know how I expected my memories to come,” She started explaining looking at Valentina “I guess I thought I’d just remember what happened in my life. But I remember everything.”

“Juls, is everything okay?” Valentina asked worriedly.

“Yes, I promise,” Juliana said with a smile “I’m just a little nervous.”

“Why?” She asked, feeling confused by then.

“I remember how I felt,” Juliana explained, letting go of one of Valentina’s hand to brush a strand of hair behind her ear, letting her hand rest on her shoulder afterwards “It’s like reliving the moment.”

“What did you remember?” Valentina asked, still confused.

“Nothing special, the other day it was just a random day at work, today I remembered a night we went out together,” Juliana took a deep breath before going on “It’s going to sound weird, but I remembered exactly how I felt that night.”

Valentina smiled, sensing Juliana’s nervousness.

“What were we doing?” Valentina asked, trying to reduce her girlfriend’s anxiety by a little.

“We were walking,” Juliana said, laughing lightly “I might be getting things mixed up, but I think we had just left the theatre. I remembered a play about a war or something. I know it had a really long weird name and we loved it.”

“Oh yeah, I remember that night.” Valentina smiled.

“But the part of the night that I remember more vividly was the walk with you,” Juliana continued after some silence, looking away and playing a little with Valentina’s hair “I don’t know if you remember but we were talking about my work and an upcoming show I had.”

“I remember.” Valentina smiled fondly at the memory.

It wasn’t something she’d usually remember but on that situation she recalled how nervous Juliana was for the show. It was the one she was stressed the most about, so Valentina was trying to take her mind out of it, and that was the first night she actually got to go out with her girlfriend in a while.

“I felt something different,” Juliana continued to play with Valentina’s hair “Something good.”

“It was a good night.” Valentina answered, not really knowing what else to say.

“It wasn’t really about that night, Val,” Juliana said, finally looking back at her girlfriend “It was about you.”

Valentina looked Juliana in the eyes, her gaze full of love. She raised her hand to Juliana’s cheek and ran her thumb through it lightly. She didn’t say anything back, because she was scared to find out how Juliana felt about that, the moment was already good enough as it was.

“I miss it.” Juliana said in a low tone after sustaining Valentina’s gaze for a moment.

Valentina leaned forward, placing a kiss on Juliana’s cheek.

“It will come back.” She said with a hint of sadness in her voice.

“Val, it’s not really gone,” Juliana said, blushing a little “It was a familiar feeling, it’s still here.”

“Juls, you don’t have to figure out everything you feel right now.” Valentina said.

“You make me feel like that.” Juliana stated.

“What does that mean?” Valentina said with a laugh. As much as she knew that moment was special, she was a little confused.

“I don’t know.” Juliana smiled back at her.

Valentina got up from her chair and extended her hand offering Juliana help to do the same. Once they were both standing, Valentina pulled Juliana into a hug, which was reciprocated immediately.

“You make me feel like that too.” Valentina said with a chuckle.

Juliana laughed a little herself before turning her head to kiss Valentina’s cheek. She separated the hug a little, staying close to Valentina, her arms hanging loosely on her waist. The older woman gently grabbed Juliana’s face between her hands and leaned forward, kissing her softly.

When the kiss broke apart, Juliana was smiling widely.

“See?” She said “That’s what I mean.”

Valentina laughed, pulling Juliana closer to her.

“You’re making absolutely no sense, mi amor.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you're wondering why the chapter is called 1812, it's part of the name of the play Juliana was talking about. If you know what it is you're awesome.  
> thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it :)


	14. Her

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm sorry for this long, extremely cheesy flashback. i just thought it was an important part of the story that was untold so here you go

_ “It’s been a while since we last came here.” Juliana said, moving her hand around in search for Valentina’s. _

_ “I know.” Valentina said, looking down and grabbing Juliana’s wondering hand. _

_ The couple had decided to spend the weekend at the Carvajal’s house at Valle, like they did occasionally. It was night time and they’d gone to the backyard for an evening picnic; they had already eaten and were just laying side by side at the picnic towel looking at the stars. _

_ Juliana brought their now joined hands up to her lips, pressing a kiss on the back of Valentina’s. _

_ “Are you gonna tell me what made you take me in such a nice getaway?” Juliana asked, resting their hands on top of her heart. _

_ “I just wanted to do something nice for you.” Valentina turned her whole body to the side, facing Juliana. _

_ “Thank you.” Juliana whispered, turning her head to look at her girlfriend. _

_ “It’s not over yet.” Valentina said, slightly nervous. _

_ Juliana frowned, smiling a little while Valentina shifted her position so she was sitting up once again. She extended her hand to help her girlfriend sit up too, moving around a little more so that they were both with their legs crossed, facing each other. _

_ The younger woman smiled after a while of silence. Valentina looked nervous for some reason and the urge to make her calmer suddenly washed over her. Juliana cupped her girlfriend’s cheeks, placing a strand of hair behind her ear before leaning in for a short kiss. _

_ “Are you okay?” She asked in a soft tone. _

_ Valentina looked down, growing more nervous but still nodding in response. _

_ “I just want to tell you something.” She stated almost in a whisper. _

_ Juliana didn’t verbally answer, but she offered her girlfriend a soft smile and took Valentina’s hands in hers to encourage her to keep going. _

_ “You’ve changed my life, Juls,” Valentina started after sighing to get rid of the remaining nervousness. Juliana’s smile grew wider with her sentence, making her feel more at ease for the rest of her small speech “When you sat by my side on that park you completely shifted the direction my life was talking, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.” _

_ Juliana leaned forward, planting a small kiss on Valentina’s lips in a sudden movement. _

_ “You made things better.” She stated. _

_ “Hey! You didn’t let me finish,” Valentina said, causing Juliana to laugh. She went on with her little speech once the other woman’s laughter subsided “We’re going to keep on changing, we’re humans; but I want you to be a part of every change I go through. That we go through.” _

_ Juliana smiled at Valentina, raising her hand to her cheek and lightly running her thumb through her skin. _

_ “I’ll be here for every single one.” Juliana said. _

_ “I want to suggest a change,” Valentina continued, smiling nervously “To us.” _

_ Juliana looked a little confused as Valentina put her hand on her pocket and moved it around, looking for something. Once she pulled out the ring, though, her whole speech started to make more sense. Juliana looked down to Valentina’s hand and then back up to her eyes, with a shocked expression, tears threatening to spill from her eyes. _

_ “Juliana Valdés, will you marry me?” Valentina said almost in a whisper. _

_ There was a small moment of silence, Juliana’s eyes still shifting from the small piece of jewelry to Valentina’s eyes with the same shocked expression. The older woman started feeling a little nervous with the lack of response. _

_ After a while, Juliana nodded her head, the movement so small that it was almost unnoticeable. Valentina sighed in relief at the gesture before she felt Juliana’s arms wrapped around her neck, her head hiding in the crook of her neck. _

_ “Yes.” She whispered from her position. _

_ Valentina felt tears starting to form in her eyes as a response to the happiness and relief she felt at that moment. She turned her head to place a soft kiss on Juliana’s before whispering against her hair. _

_ “Mi amor,” Her voice trembled a little before she giggled a little “I really want to hug you back, but I don’t want to lose the ring.” _

_ She heard Juliana’s soft laugh before she left her little hiding spot. When they looked each other in their eyes, both women saw an overwhelming amount of emotion. Juliana’s hands slipped from their previous position on Valentina’s neck to her cheeks. She leaned in and kissed her tenderly, before feeling the older woman smile against her lips. _

_ Juliana separated from Valentina, her hands still on her cheeks until she felt Valentina’s hand brushing against her right one and pulling it down on a careful movement. Looking down at their hands, Valentina slipped the ring into Juliana’s finger, stopping to admire the accessory she just put there for a little bit. _

_ The ring wasn’t really extravagant, it something a little different, maybe, but it still had it’s elegance. The thin golden bend was topped with a small diamond in the middle and other tiny ones on each side, making it slightly resemble flowers on a twig. _

_ Valentina raised her head to look at Juliana only to meet the same loving gaze she beared in her own eyes. With both her hands free, Valentina pulled her now fiancée closer to her. _

\---

Juliana and Valentina were enjoying what they had left of the weekend together. They were both sitting in the couch and Valentina had one of her arms wrapped around Juliana, who was leaning against her, while a movie played in the background.

As Juliana regained her memory, things were progressing more between them. Her memories made her feel more comfortable around Valentina, even though she still didn’t feel like the life she was living completely belonged to her.

It was a weird feeling, as much as Juliana remembered living some moments of her life, there was still a huge blank in her mind. She was trying to focus on getting everything back on track, but sometimes she still felt like she was living someone else’s life. The feeling wasn’t as strong as when she first woke up from her coma, but it was still there, and she wasn’t really sure if it would ever go away.

Juliana felt Valentina pressing a kiss to her head, making her snap back into reality. She smiled, laying her head on the older woman’s shoulder and tilting it a little so she could look at her. Juliana met Valentina’s eyes, finding a slightly worried look.

“Are you okay?” Valentina asked “You seem a little spaced out.”

Juliana nodded.

“Are you sure?” Valentina insisted.

Juliana was quiet for a little bit before raising one of her hand to Valentina’s cheek and leaning in for a quick kiss.

“I’m okay.” She said after pulling away, looking at a smiley Valentina.

“Okay.” She said, placing a kiss on Juliana’s forehead before redirecting her attention to the movie.

After a while, Valentina grabbed one of Juliana’s hand with her free one and started mindlessly playing with her fingers while still paying attention to the screen.

“You never took it off.” Valentina smiled once she encountered the piece of jewelry in Juliana’s finger, spinning the engagement ring placed on her right hand.

Juliana felt a pang of guilt running through her, without really understanding the feeling.

“Did you want me to?” She asked almost in a whisper, looking at Valentina once again.

“What?” She said, a bit shocked “Of course not. I just thought maybe you wouldn’t want to keep it.” Valentina continued trying to sound as calm as possible.

Juliana nodded with a frown on her face before turning to look at the TV.

Valentina sighed, pausing the movie and pulling a little on Juliana’s hand.

“Juls, what’s going on?” She asked, trying to get Juliana to look at her.

“Nothing.” Juliana looked down at their joined hands.

“You can talk to me.” Valentina said, knowing something was wrong with the other woman.

“I know,” Juliana said quietly before sighing, gathering the courage to open up to her girlfriend “It’s just that-” She hesitated before continuing “Sometimes I feel like I’m stealing her life.”

“Whose life?” Valentina asked, feeling confused.

Juliana released an uncomfortable noise, knowing what she’d say next wouldn’t be taken well.

“Mine.” She tried explaining.

“What do you mean?” Valentina frowned.

“I don’t know, Val,” Juliana started, knowing that what she said sounded odd “All of this, my position on work, you, my whole life; it’s not really mine.”

“Juls,” Valentina started, feeling like they were taking steps back “It’s  _ your _ life.”

“I know,” Juliana said, starting to believe she wouldn’t be able to express her feelings to the other woman “But, Val, I didn’t do anything to get here. It feels like I’m stepping into someone’s life and just taking over every single one of their achievements, I did nothing to deserve all this.”

Valentina was silent for a while, trying to process Juliana’s speech before just spitting out some automatic response. She understood what she was meant and she honestly didn’t know what she could say to make Juliana feel better.

It was hard for Valentina, who had seen Juliana go through all her struggles to get where she was, to put herself on her girlfriend’s foot. She wanted Juliana to understand that it didn’t matter that she didn’t remember everything, she’d still been through them. Also, she had just been through a really traumatic experience with the accident, she deserved to have a break from her struggles.

“Juls,” Valentina said after some silence “I can’t imagine what you’re going through, I think I’ll never truly know. But you have to understand that this was all you.”

Juliana sighed, wishing she could just forget those feeling and carry on with her life normally.

“Look,” Valentina tried again, grabbing Juliana’s hands in hers “What you’re living right now; it’s a product of what you are as a person. Being yourself is what brought you here.” She explained, finally getting Juliana to look at her “The person I fell for, the person who got her current position at  _ La Mode _ is not a ‘her’, it’s you, Juls. You’re still the same person.”

Juliana nodded, wanting to change subjects because that was still a very sensitive one for her. Even though she tried to act like she was okay, her emotions got the best of her. She managed to delay her reaction by a little, but Valentina was still looking at her when her eyes started filling with tears.

Valentina frowned before pulling Juliana into her arms. The younger woman felt the tears start to spill and tried to be as silent as possible, as she hid herself on her girlfriend’s neck.

“I understand what you’re saying, Val. It makes sense” Juliana said once she calmed herself down a little and felt like her voice wouldn’t fail her “But I guess feelings don’t really make sense.”

Valentina sighed, holding Juliana to try and comforting her before making a suggestion.

“What about therapy?” She asked.

When Juliana first woke up from her coma, therapy was suggested as a way to help get her life back on track. For some reason that suggestion had been overlooked, even though Valentina tried bringing it up ever so often, Juliana seemed reluctant to try it.

“I don’t know, Val.” Juliana answered, as she usually did.

“Juls, I want to help you. I really do,” Valentina said “But I don’t want to be the one to give you bad advice, I don’t want to tell you that you should just try to live your life as it is now,” She explained herself “I want you to hear something that makes sense from someone that actually knows what they’re talking about.”

Silence filled the room as Juliana considered that. Even though the silence was just a moment of reflection for the younger woman, Valentina feared that it meant that she had talked a little too much. She waited nervously to see if Juliana would distance herself from her or say something. As she was about to say something, Juliana broke their silence.

“Okay.” She whispered.

“Yeah?” Valentina asked, feeling shocked.

“I’ll try it.” Juliana nodded.

Valentina squeezed Juliana a little tighter in her arms, making the latter laugh lightly and cuddle up to her.

Juliana tried hiding her nervousness from Valentina as she resumed the movie. Juliana had never been one to easily open up to people; she had never been to therapy, but the idea of letting a complete stranger know so much about her made her feel slightly uneasy. Maybe it was because of her upbringing, but trust was something Juliana struggled with.

As these thoughts raced through her mind, she tried coming back to reality and focus at what was currently going on. She would face her fears later, maybe something good could come out of it after all. Juliana just wanted to feel like her life truly belonged to her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the long wait yall :(  
> BUT the second Juliana appreciation week is happening on Tumblr, starting today so i'm happy to tell i'll have some new content coming through this week!!  
> hope you liked it and maybe stay tuned to see the new stories that are gonna come :)


	15. Appointment

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M SO SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT

Juliana hadn’t had the most pleasing childhood, in fact it had been quite the opposite, she’d been brought up with constant ideas of hate, intolerance and fear surrounding her. She was just as sure that her mother was essentially good as she was that her father was a genuinely bad person. Needless to say that wasn’t the most healthy environment to grow up in.

While Juliana knew her mother had tried to give her a normal life, she couldn’t entirely blame her for giving in to her father’s impositions and beliefs due to fear. Juliana grew up knowing she’d have to be the one to be responsible for her own life at all times, she learned that no one would take care of her but herself.

When she moved to Mexico City, after her father’s death, she found herself finally getting rid of the toxicity in her life. Juliana liked to think Mexico was a new beginning for her, the start of a new life. But, even though she started deconstructing some of the more strict ideas imposed into her, some habits die hard. Juliana still found it extremely hard to let people into her life and to ask for help.

That’s why she was initially so resistant to the idea of therapy even considering the whole situation going on. As much as she was very grateful for the outcome, it had already been really hard accepting Valentina as such a big part of her life, but now she had to let yet another stranger know her very intimately.

Juliana looked around the room where she was sitting. The place looked very homey and warm, the the seats available all looked very comfortable, the book shelf displayed different titles and authors and everything was quite colorful. But all she could feel was discomfort under the gaze of the strange woman analyzing her.

Some questions had already been asked and Juliana obediently answered all of them, but the all her responses had been quick and short, leaving no place for new topics for conversation. The silence in the room was starting to bother the girl deeply and she was just waiting for the other woman to say something.

“So,” The older woman finally said “What brought you here?”

Juliana sighed, that question was a bit deeper than asking for her name, age and what she did for a living. She found herself prolonging the silence she oh-so-dreaded a few seconds before while trying to come up with an answer.

She had a small inner battle in her moment of silence. Juliana knew why she was there and what she wanted to change, but asking a stranger to help her was a little out of her comfort zone.

She then thought of how the whole situation wasn’t really just affecting her, but also the people who had more contact with her. Juliana sighed once again before finally deciding to be honest, but still not opening up completely.

\---

“Hi.” Juliana smiled to the other girl, who was sitting in the couch before placing her keys on the table next to the door.

Juliana stopped and frowned, feeling like something was wrong, it felt like she had forgotten about something. She stood frozen for a second before nodding her head, remembering what was missing.

“What?” Valentina asked with a chuckle.

“Where’s Cora?” Juliana asked still standing in the same spot.

“Being groomed,” Valentina laughed lightly “Guille said he wanted to pamper his niece a little.” She had to put her book down to make air quotations.

“Ok.” Juliana said, but it came more as a question, making her girlfriend laugh harder.

“He’s trying to convince Renata to get a puppy.” Valentina explained.

“His wife?”

“Yes.”

Juliana finally moved from her spot, walking towards Valentina once she realised she had been standing still for a while now. She took a sit besides the older girl and turned her body a little on the couch so that she was facing her girlfriend.

“Hi.” Juliana repeated, smiling again at Valentina.

“Hi,” Valentina answered, leaning in to place a small kiss on the other’s lips “How was it?”

Juliana scooched closer to Valentina and cuddled a bit into her side, recalling the whole conversation she had with the professional earlier. The older girl happily placed one of her arms around her girlfriend’s shoulder, squeezing her a little tighter into a half-hug. Some silence still followed up before Juliana’s answer.

“It was awkward,” She scrunched her nose a little “But it was good, I guess.”

“Good enough for there to be a second session?” Valentina asked hopefully, a smile crossing her face at Juliana’s answer.

“It’s already scheduled.” Juliana looked back at Valentina.

“That’s great!” Valentina said in a high pitched voice, leaning in to press another quick kiss on Juliana’s lips “I really think this will help you, mi amor.”

Juliana smiled like she did everytime Valentina called her by that name. She nodded lightly.

“I can see how it would help.”

Valentina smiled harder, moving both her hands to Juliana’s cheeks and pulling her lightly for another kiss, lingering a bit that time. When they parted, Juliana still had her eyes closed and she started chuckling lightly before dropping her head to Valentina’s shoulder.

“What is it?” Valentina asked with a confused laugh, letting her arms wrap around Juliana’s body and hugging her closer.

“Nothing,” She blushed before deciding to share what was going through her mind “It’s just when you’re-” She cut herself abruptly mid sentence “When you really like someone…”

Juliana was quiet for a long time, as if she had forgotten that she was halfway through a sentence. Valentina laughed lightly before shaking Juliana a little in her arms as if she was trying to wake her up.

“When you really like someone what?” She asked laughing.

The younger woman pulled away from the embrace so that she could properly look at her girlfriend before going on with her thought.

“I just thought it was gonna be different,” Juliana said, being quick to correct herself when she saw Valentina frown “I didn’t think things like this would actually happen to me.”

“Things like what?” Valentina teased.

“I don’t know, Val,” Juliana blushed deeply “Actually liking someone and having them like me back.”

Valentina grabbed her girlfriend’s hands in her own and raised them up to her lips, kissing them lightly. She was proud of how far Juliana had come since she first woke up after her accident, she remembered how Juliana was distant and almost seemed angry when they first got home. And now there she was: confessing her feelings in her own (and a little weird) way.

Ever since the accident, Valentina was longing to be able to tell Juliana how she actually felt. She wanted to let her know how much she loved her and tell her she’d missed her and needed her, but, when the younger woman woke up without even knowing who she was, she knew she had to hold it all back for some time.

Valentina didn’t want to scare Juliana, she could only think of how weird it would be for her if a complete stranger suddenly proclaimed her love for her. But Juliana wasn’t a stranger for her, she the person she loved the most, who just happened to have been through a life threatening accident. She knew she had to hold her feelings back, but that knowledge didn’t make things any easier.

Sometimes suppressing her feelings was harder than others, though, and that was one of them. Juliana hadn’t changed, she was still the same person, but she was a bit distant after the accident, and now that she was getting comfortable with her life, Valentina would often like to act as if nothing had happened at all.

She knew she couldn’t write Juliana love letters and tell her she loved her fifteen times a day, but Valentina still had her ways of trying to let Juliana know how she felt about her.

“I like you,” Valentina said, looking Juliana in the eyes “A lot.”

Juliana smiled. She wasn’t dumb, she knew what Valentina meant, they were engaged, after all, she knew her fiacée loved her. But she really appreciated that Valentina was very respectful of her pace, it made her feel like she truly knew her.

Sometimes Juliana felt slightly guilty that she didn’t know Valentina in that same level, but she understood her girlfriend had a three year head start, so maybe it would take her some time and effort to get to know Valentina. What surprised Juliana a little was the fact that she was more than willing to give up all the time it took to get there.

“I really like you, Val.” Juliana answered, her smile widening.

Valentina huffed a laugh and leaned her forehead against Juliana’s, shutting her eyes. Both girls felt the shift there was in the room at that moment. For some reason, both of them suddenly got serious and felt a strong need to manifest their feelings.

Juliana shut her eyes as well before snaking her arm around Valentina’s neck and pulling her in for a kiss.

Ever since they had resumed their romantic relationship, all their interactions had been fairly innocent, sharing soft kisses and cuddles, but something shifted at that moment. Valentina felt Juliana trying to deepen the kiss and quickly allowed her to.

Their position wasn’t the most comfortable, but Valentina heard Juliana’s shoes thump against the floor and felt her feet raising to rest next to her thigh, which allowed her to pull her girlfriend closer.

Valentina placed one of her hands on the base of Juliana’s back, dragging her as close as possible. She felt Juliana’s hand tangle in her hair and felt a slight scratch in her scalp. She heard a small throaty noise escape Juliana’s lips, which made her pull away.

She placed a small kiss on the corner of Juliana’s mouth and then moved to her cheek. Valentina was almost exploding with the urge of just leaning in to whisper to Juliana that she loved her, but was able to stop herself.

Juliana placed her hands on Valentina’s cheek and pulled her face closer again. She first kissed her forehead and then placed a small peck on her nose before moving back to her lips.

In the middle of their kiss, Valentina’s phone rung. She groaned before pulling away to pick up the call.

“Hello?” She answered, annoyed when she saw her brother’s name on the caller’s ID 

“Cora peed on our carpet, I’m returning her immediately.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi I'm very sorry it took me over a month to update, i've just been very busy lately with school and work and honestly it just has been kind of hard to find the time and inspiration to take my notebook and write but i'm back!!! i'm not gonna make any promisses as to the next upload but i truly hope it'll take me less time. hope yall enjoyed this chapter and, once again, i'm vey sorry i made you guys wait so long :(


	16. Family

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> eva wasn't arrested and lucia didn't die just so yall wont get confused

_“Finally, you two!” Guille exclaimed, standing up from his seat._

_Valentina and Juliana had finally decided to come clean about their relationship to everyone. The couple had struggled for a while to come to terms with what they had going on between them, which was especially hard with all the obstacles life had put in the way, but once things were calmer and they settled all the issues between them, they decided that the next step would be making their relationship public._

_Technically that wouldn’t really be necessary since Valentina had basically officiated their relationship on national television, but the girls still felt like their families deserved a more intimate and clear explanation. They decided to start by someone who they knew would take it all well: Valentina’s brother._

_Guille walked across the room, hugging his younger sister._

_“Shut up, Guille” Valentina said, laughing into the hug “We did things in the right time.”_

_“Are you kidding me?” Guille pulled away, standing in front of the girls “You couldn't have taken any longer. I was honestly getting tired of your drama, Val.”_

_“At least I didn’t have a failed proposal.” Valentina mumbled, more to herself than to anyone else._

_“I heard that.” Guille said_

_“I’m just saying my timing is better than yours.” Valentina shrugged._

_Juliana tried to hold back her laughter, but her girlfriend’s last comment made a small chuckle escape. Guille turned to the other girl, who was getting ready to hug him when he put one of his hands on her shoulder, keeping some distance between them._

_“Don’t break her heart.” Guille said, faking a threatening tone and pointing at a wide eyed Juliana._

_“Guillermo!” Valentina said in annoyance, pushing her brother away from her girlfriend._

_“Ouch!” He exclaimed while rubbing his arm in the spot his sister had hit him “Juliana knows I’m joking. Stop taking everything so seriously, hermanita.”_

_Valentina huffed while Guille made his way to hug the younger girl._

_“I’m not joking.” Guille whispered to Juliana once his arms were around her._

_“I won’t.” She whispered back._

\---

Saturday lunch had become a thing in the Carvajal household ever since all the kids had moved away with their respective partners. León and Lucía would invite all the Carvajal children and their significant others to spend the day at the mansion and just catch up on everything going on. At first, that was an every weekly event, but over the time with everyone’s busy and clashing schedules, they only managed to do it once a month.

Still, that was always one of the days Valentina both expected and feared the most. As much as she loved her family to death, things did tend to get a little bit dramatic when they were all together.

Valentina sighed as she parked her car in the mansion’s driveway. For the second month in a row, she decided to not tell Juliana about the family gathering for her comfort, and she knew that would raise a lot of questions.

She had almost told her girlfriend about it that time, but then she mentioned she had something planned with her mother on that exact day, so she decided maybe that was just a heaven’s sign that Juliana still wasn’t ready for it.

She got out of the car and made her way to the front door, ringing the doorbell once she reached it.

“Mi niña!” Silvina answered the door, welcoming Valentina with a hug.

“Hi, Chivis.”

“Is Juliana coming later?” She asked.

As much as there was a certain resistance about accepting Juliana from most of the people Valentina considered herself close to, they had all grown to like and accept the younger girl as part of the family.

“Not this time,” Valentina smiled politely, pulling away from the hug “She’s with her mom.”

“And is she feeling better?”

“Yes, Chivis.” Valentina answered with a more genuine smile. She really loved seeing everyone around her caring for her girlfriend.

“Vale!” Guille walked closer to his sister so she could greet her properly “Where’s Juli?”

“She went out with her mom.”

“Is everything okay?” Guille frowned, finding it weird that Juliana wasn’t there again considering what he knew about the girl’s relationship.

“Yes, Guille,” Valentina clarified “She actually had plans with her mom. I’m sure she’ll be here next time.”

“If you say so,” Guille raised his hands in defense “I need to show you something.”

“Guille, I just got here,” Valentina laughed lightly “I’m going to say hi to everyone.”

“Okay, but after that you’ll have to listen to me.”

Valentina nodded, narrowing her eyes a bit in suspicion. She soon walked into the living room where all her family was in the middle of a conversation. Their heads turned a bit when Valentina entered the room and they all smiled a bit but without really interrupting the conversation.

Valentina went by all the people in the room, greeting them one by one and leaving her niece in last place so she could interact with the three year old a little bit more.

“Hi, hermosa!” She said, kneeling down to be at the child’s reach.

“Tía Val!” The little girl ran the short distance separating her from her aunt, throwing herself in her arms once she was close enough.

“How are you?” Valentina asked, standing up with the girl still in her arms and placing a kiss on her cheek.

Her niece basically ignored her question, leaning her head in her aunt’s shoulder before Guille could step in.

“Val, you can’t just take Bela like that. I’m sure she misses her mom.” He said in order to get Valentina’s attention.

“Shut up, Guille. I just-”

“Mamá!” The little girl screamed extending her tiny hands toward her mother.

Valentina sighed but also laughed lightly, Isabela was still very young and of course she would want her mom anytime someone mentioned her. She leaned down, placing her niece on her sister’s lap and then turning around to face Guille.

“What do you want?” She asked once her brother got what he wanted.

“I told you I needed to show you something.” Guille said quietly enough so that only his younger sister would hear him.

Valentina sighed and walked behind her brother, who was already making his way upstairs. Once she entered his room he quickly shut his door behind them.

“What’s so important?” She asked, slightly annoyed.

“You’ll see.” Guille answered while walking around his room, looking for something.

After a minute of the man browsing through his old closet, he finally found what he was looking for and made his way back to his younger sister.

“For real?” Valentina said after analysing the small black box for a while.

“Yes.” He answered, and even opened the small box exposing the ring inside it to his sister.

“Finally, hermanito!” Valentina cheered, hugging her brother.

“Val, I’m older than you.” Guille laughed, hugging his sister back.

“Well, I beat you at that.” She pulled away from the hug.

“Technically, you didn’t.”

“Still, I was the first one to actually succeed.”

Guille made a face mocking his sister. Throughout the three years that had passed, Valentina still managed to bring up her brother’s failed proposal somehow.

“But we’re ready now,” Guille said, smiling lightly while thinking of his girlfriend “I know it.”

“So,” Valentina said after some silence “When are you proposing?”

“Tomorrow.”

“No way!” Valentina exclaimed excitedly, lightly shoving her brother for emphasis.

“Ouch! Why do you always do this?” He complained.

Valentina just shrugged with a small smile and the room was taken by silence for some time.

“How’s everything going with Juliana?” Guille asked the question Valentina knew would be made that afternoon.

“We’re good.” Valentina answered with a shy smile.

“Are things back to normal?” Her brother asked excitedly.

“Well,” She hesitated a little “We’re getting there.”

“Is everything okay, Vale?”

“Yeah, it’s just-” Valentina stopped herself and waved a hand in front of her trying to dismiss the topic.

“Vale?”

“I feel bad for thinking this way,” Valentina sighed “But I kinda miss things the way they were.”

“That’s not bad,” Guille frowned “And have you talked to her about it?”

“Guille, I can’t ask too much of her,” She tried explaining herself “Also things are going back to normal, I just need to be patient. Ignore what I said.”

Valentina quickly started making her way out of the room so that her brother wouldn't persist on getting anything out of her. She just wanted to have a regular afternoon with her family, even though one of the most important members was missing.

\---

“Juli!” Lupita greeted her daughter with a hug as soon as she crossed the apartment door.

“Hi, Má.” Juliana answered hugging her mother back.

Juliana missed spending time with her family. Even though her move was mainly based on not having to live with Panchito and his kids, who she didn’t really have any intimacy with, she somehow missed everyone.

Mostly, Juliana missed living with her mother. She knew technically they’d been living apart for a little over than three years at that point, but Juliana still felt like she had moved out a month ago. She was used to having shared small spaces with her mother and getting her own apartment was a huge step for her, living alone was an experience she truly enjoyed and her homesickness wasn’t strong enough to bring her back to her old home at any time, but sometimes she still caught herself feeling a little lonely being all by herself.

In that aspect, Valentina was of huge help to Juliana, both at the time she’d first moved in and after the accident. As much as she didn’t recognize her girlfriend the second time around, she was still happy she wasn’t completely alone.

“Where’s everyone?” Juliana asked once she noticed the house was oddly quiet,

“They’re out with Perlita.” Lupe explained to her daughter.

“Why didn’t you go?”

“Well, because you called me.”

“Má!” Juliana whined, feeling slightly guilty “You didn’t have to cancel your plans. We could’ve just rescheduled.”

“Oh stop it, Juli,” Lupita dismissed her daughter with a polite smile “I can miss spending time with my daughter too, you know?”

Both women made their way further inside the apartment, sitting side by side, and quickly started catching up on the most basics aspects of their life. Lupe told her daughter about her work and home life and Juliana told her mother about how everything was progressing with therapy and some new memories.

“Any new memories with me?” Lupita teased after Juliana told her a bunch of work related things she’s remembered about.

“Um,” Juliana blushed slightly trying to access any memories with her mom in the past three years “Má, I have a lot of memories with you.” She wasn’t lying, but she decided to not mention that all the memories were from the period she was completely aware of.

“Sure, mija,” Lupita laughed at the younger girl “Any new memories with Valentina?”

Juliana sighed in defeat.

“I knew it!” Lupita exclaimed “You better work that brain to remember something with me.”

Juliana laughed a little at the bad joke her mom had just done.

“But seriously,” Lupita asked after she stopped laughing herself “How are things with Valentina?”

“Everything is fine,” Juliana said after a content sigh “She’s a great person.”

“Oh, Juli,” Lupe cooed “I love seeing you with this look again!”

“What do you mean?”

“Love, mija,” The older woman laughed lightly “Your whole face just brighten up when you talk about someone you love.”

Juliana nodded and tried carrying on with the day in a normal way, but her mother’s words were stuck with her for the rest of their time together. Love. Now _that’s_ a strong word. Did she love Valentina? Sure, what she felt for Valentina was different than anything she’d ever felt before; thinking about Valentina would make her smile and she made her feel special, and Juliana would go a long way to make her feel the same. Was that what love was?

She thought about all the physical sensations her girlfriend would provoke on her, and then about how everything just seemed lighter when she was around her. Maybe it was love after all.

\---

Juliana heard the door unlocking from the main bedroom and quickly started making her way to the living room. Cora apparently had had the same idea as her and was already scratching her paws against the door. The woman decided to stay behind for a while so that the puppy would have her time to shine, but still stood near the doorway.

As soon as Valentina entered the apartment, the puppy started running circles around her owner.

“Hi, bebé!” Valentina said with a baby voice once the dog stopped with her front paws against her legs.

She scratched the dog’s head for a while, making some noises to communicate with the puppy. When she stopped, Cora immediately started running around the living room, jumping in the couch and laying down in a floppy movement.

Juliana approached her girlfriend while Valentina was still looking at the puppy and placed both her hands on top of one of her shoulders, leaning in to press a kiss on her cheek.

Valentina turned her face to her girlfriend with a soft smile and placed one of her arms around her waist. Juliana moved her arms so that she was hugging the other girl and leaned in for a kiss.

“Hi.” Valentina pulled away after a couple seconds, but maintaining her head basically in the same position.

“Hi,” Juliana smiled and scrunched up her nose before leaning in for a slightly longer kiss “I didn’t know you were going out.”

“Oh, yeah,” Valentina said increasing the distance between them a little while still keeping her hands on Juliana’s waist “Lunch at my parents’.”

“You don’t owe me explanations.” Juliana joked with a smile.

Valentina laughed softly but soon stopped and settled to just looking at her girlfriend. Juliana broke into a big smile before closing the distance between them with a tight hug. The older girl smiled to herself while she hid her face on the crook of her girlfriend’s neck, placing a very light kiss on the spot. She heard Juliana chuckle a little and felt her head moving a little, which made her remember that she was ticklish at that spot.

“Sorry.” Valentina mumbled, pressing a firmir kiss on that same spot.

“It’s okay,” Juliana responded while running her fingers through Valentina’s long hair. She turned her head a little and placed a kiss on her head, which made Valentina sigh deeply “Are you okay?”

“I’m just a little tired.” She answered.

Juliana pulled away from the hug before grabbing her phone to check the time.

“It’s still pretty early.” She stated turning the screen to Valentina, showing that it was still 7PM.

“I know,” Valentina whined, making Juliana laugh a little “Family afternoons are just a little tiring.”

“Did you guys have dinner too?” She asked, to which Valentina answered shaking her head “I’ll take care of that. Go rest a little.”

“You’re an angel,” Valentina exclaimed, making Juliana laugh once again “Thank you.” She continued, hugging her girlfriend once again and kissing her cheek before making her way to their room.

Juliana tried preparing something quick and easy to make and as soon as she was done, she made her way to the main bedroom only to find Valentina already asleep, on the same clothes as from when she arrived home. She smiled to herself before walking up to their bed and sitting beside her sleeping girlfriend.

“Val,” Juliana whispered brushing a strand of hair out of Valentina’s face “Dinner’s ready.”

“Huh?” Valentina mumbled with her eyes still closed.

Juliana chuckled lightly and ran her fingers through the other girl’s hair, later placing her hand on Valentina’s cheek and running her thumb across her skin.

“Your hand is cold.” She said, still not opening her eyes.

“Sorry.” Juliana said and started moving her hand away.

“No!” Valentina whined, finally opening her eyes, grabbing her girlfriend’s hand and placing it on it’s previous position, letting her own hand rest on top of Juliana’s “I don’t care.”

“Okay,” Juliana smiled and rest in that position for a few seconds “Are you hungry?”

Valentina nodded and directed her gaze to Juliana.

“Dinner’s ready.” She repeated herself.

“I’ll be right there.”

The rest of the night went by pretty regularly; they had dinner and stayed in the living room a little longer talking to each other. They then went on to do their own activities, Juliana in her office working on some sketches while Valentina stayed in the living room reading a book. A few hours after Valentina arrived home, they were both in bed and ready to sleep.

Valentina soon turned her bedside lamp off, announcing that she was off to sleep, and turned to her side. After a few minutes Juliana also turned off her lamp, but instead of just turning the opposite way like she usually did, she turned her body so that she was facing Valentina’s back and shuffled a little closer to her.

“Good night.” She whispered running her hand down Valentina’s arms and placing a soft kiss on her shoulder.

Juliana then turned to her other side, but soon she heard Valentina moving around in bed and felt her arm wrapping around her waist.

Juliana smiled to herself as she placed her hand on top of Valentina’s and closed her eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M SORRY ONCE AGAIN FOR THE LATE UPDATE  
> i don't really have any excuses lol i'm sorry, at least this chapter is a bit longer (??)  
> anyways, hope you enjoyed it and also that you're having a good day :)


	17. Comfort

Juliana felt herself waking up, but she refused to open her eyes once she realised the room still seemed to be dark. She kept her eyes shut for some minutes, trying to fall back asleep, sighing once she realised that wouldn’t happen any time soon. She opened her eyes just to find Valentina’s nose nearly touching hers. 

Juliana smiled at her sleeping girlfriend. Rare were the times she’d actually get a glimpse of Valentina on that state, since the older girl had to get up earlier to go to work and that habit just seemed to persist on the weekends. Juliana liked how peaceful her girlfriend looked in her sleep. Not that Valentina wasn’t naturally a relaxed person, but at that moment she looked like she hadn’t absolutely any worries.

The younger girl carefully brushed a strand of her girlfriend’s hair away from her face, making sure not to wake her up.

“Mi amor.” Juliana said in a barely audible whisper.

Juliana had been curious to know how that would sound coming from her, and she felt a mixture of surprise and joy once she realized it just sounded right.

The sound of her phone vibrating on the bedside table made Juliana frown; like she had suspected a few minutes earlier, there was no natural light peeking into the room. She shifted her gaze to the window, noticing that the blinds were closed all the way, blocking the sunlight. Juliana frowned even more, trying to remember if she was the one who had put them down. She snapped out of her thoughts once she heard the phone vibrating again.

She shifted around in bed until she could reach the device, not even bothering to see the time once she saw the name displayed on the caller ID. She wondered for two seconds why was Valentina’s brother calling her, they had barely spoken since Juliana’s accident, but that only made her think that whatever reason he had was something serious.

Juliana silently hopped out of bed and rushed out of the room before picking up the phone.

“Hello?” She answered, politely.

“Juliana!” Guille exclaimed “How are you?”

“I’m good. How are you?” Juliana responded out of sheer education, since she was starting to actually get concerned about the call.

“I’m good.”

“Is everything okay?” She asked as soon as he answered her first question.

She heard a sigh on the other side of the line.

“Look, I’m sorry that this is our first proper conversation,” Guille started “I’m just a little worried about Val.”

“Is everything okay?”Juliana repeated, seemingly not being able to say anything else.

“She’s okay,” Guille clarified “She was just acting a bit weird yesterday. She was happy and all, it just didn’t seem genuine.”

“What do you mean?”

“We talked about how things are going in her life,” Guille started “And she said everything was fine, but she just seemed off after we talked about the whole situation that’s going on.”

Juliana was the one to sigh this time. She felt like things were getting better between her and Valentina, but it seemed like her girlfriend had tried so hard to make things easier for her that things were getting harder for her.

“Thanks for calling, Guille,” Juliana said, sincerely “I’ll talk to her.”

“Thank you,” He answered “Uh, I gotta go now.”

“Oh, sure,” Juliana stuttered a little “Uh, good luck today.”

“She told you.” Guille chuckled lightly.

“Yeah, I hope you don’t mind.”

“No, I’m actually happy she did,” He said, unexpectedly “She’s opening up.”

“Yeah,” Juliana blushed lightly “Well, it was nice talking to you.”

“Yes, same” Guille answered quickly “We should all get together sometime.”

“Uh, yeah, sure,” Juliana said awkwardly “Well, I’m gonna go.”

“Ok, bye.”

Juliana hung up the phone and sighed to herself. She knew she’d have to have a conversation with Valentina about the whole topic, but she was a little hesitant since she understood that it probably wouldn’t be the most pleasing talk.

She didn’t think that would necessarily be a fight, Juliana actually thought it most likely wouldn’t, but it would for sure include a lot of opening up and, as much as she had gotten to a point where talking to Valentina was easier, being closed off was still a part of her personality that would take some effort to improve.

“Good morning.”

Juliana had been so absorbed in her thoughts that she hadn’t even realised when Valentina walked into the room. She turned around after being slightly startled by the older girl, but soon reciprocated her smile.

“Hi,” Juliana said walking closer to Valentina and placing a quick kiss on her cheek “Good morning.”

“Do you have any plans for the day?” Valentina asked.

Cora entered the room barking and running around energetically.

“We could go to the park to get some energy out of this one.” Juliana laughed while the puppy jumped trying to reach her owner.

\---

The couple walked back into their apartment, both tired from their walk with Cora, who had an impressive amount of energy for such a small dog.

“I need water.” Juliana said walking towards the fridge as soon as she crossed the door.

Valentina laughed at her girlfriend reaction while she took the leash off the puppy.

“She gets a little hyper when we take her to the park.” Valentina explained while Cora bolted to the porch.

“A little?” Juliana exclaimed, making her girlfriend laugh even harder.

“She’ll be dead asleep soon.”

A comfortable silence was established in the room while both girls settled into their apartment.

“Val?” Juliana asked after a small moment of hesitation.

“Yeah?”

Juliana sighed, debating on whether or not she was ready for that step.

“Can we talk?” She said, deciding that delaying that conversation would only make her feel worse.

“Sure,” Valentina said, still seemingly relaxed “What’s going on?”

“I just wanted to talk,” Juliana started, making a brief pause “About us.”

Valentina frowned, starting to get concerned by the way Juliana was acting, mainly now that she knew the topic that made her so hesitant. She opened her mouth to say something but nothing really came out.

“It’s nothing bad,” Juliana rushed to say once she realized her words could be misinterpreted “I mean, I don’t think so. It’s not supposed to be bad-”

“Juls, is everything okay?” Valentina interrupted her girlfriend’s rambling.

“Yes,” Juliana sighed, stopping her impulsive speech. She walked a little closer to the other girl and grabbed one of her hands to try and make the atmosphere lighter “Val, it’s nothing too serious.”

“Okay.” Valentina said, feeling slightly calmer with Juliana’s proximity.

Some silence filled the room as the couple just looked at one another. Juliana offered Valentina a small smile to reinforce that nothing bad was coming. When her girlfriend reciprocated her smile, she started talking once again.

“Val, I know you want to make me feel comfortable,” Juliana started “And don’t get me wrong that’s just what you’ve been doing,” She added quickly so she wouldn’t come through the wrong way “But our relationship can’t be solely based on my comfort.”

“What do you mean?” Valentina asked, looking down to their joined hands, even though she understood what Juliana meant.

“Look, I might be wrong,” Juliana sighed “Everything is still a bit confusing to me. My memories, I mean,” She paused a little thinking about how to properly express her feelings “But sometimes I just feel like you try so hard to make things easier for me that you start creating discomfort for yourself.”

Another moment of silence was established between the couple, while both of them tried to think of something to say to break the small tension created.

Juliana looked down at their joined hands and squeezed Valentina’s lightly, making the older girl look at her.

“I’m sorry if I go it all wrong,” Juliana said still looking down “I don’t know you as well as you know me. Yet,” She shifted her gaze to her girlfriend with her last word “But from what I remember, which is not a lot, it seems like you don’t feel as free around me as you used to.”

Juliana was starting to worry about Valentina’s lack of response. Over the course of the time they’d spent together, she had noticed that her girlfriend wasn’t a woman of few words, but at that moment she seemed oddly quiet.

“Juls, you’re going through a lot,” Valentina finally said “I don’t want to add on to everything that’s happening, I just want you to feel like things are the same again.”

“But things aren’t the same,” Juliana slightly regretted those words as soon as she said them, because she saw that a hurt look crossed Valentina’s face “I’m sorry if this is hard to hear, Val. But that doesn’t mean things are bad. Things are different because I didn’t have you in my life before. Or Cora. And because I was 19 and just an intern at La Mode. Things changed, but most of it was for the better.”

Valentina smiled sadly before answering.

“I know things aren’t the same,” She admitted “And that’s why I’m trying to make things easier on you. So much was just thrown at you all at once and I don’t want to be the one thing that scares you away.” 

“Val, you can’t just ignore that all that’s going on is affecting you,” Juliana said, sounding a bit too annoyed for her own liking and taking a deep breath before continuing “Look, I know you want to help me, but I want to help you too. I also worry about you, Val. You’re my girlfriend.” 

As much as Juliana’s tone startled Valentina just a little bit, it felt extremely reassuring hearing that her girlfriend actually cared about her despite her own troubles. She knew Juliana had a point, she knew she didn’t feel as free as she did before the accident, but Valentina had been holding herself back because she was scared Juliana’s feeling hadn’t developed enough to make her stay even though things wouldn’t always sail smoothly.

Valentina felt all the emotions she’d been suppressing for the past couple months catching up to her. She felt her eyes tearing up, but Juliana soon stepped up.

“No, Val. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you cry.” She frowned a little, concerned about Valentina’s response.

“It’s not that,” Valentina assured with a small smile before sighing to gather the courage to go on “Juls, I thought I was going to lose you. After the accident all the doctors said everything would be fine but I couldn’t believe them, because you were still there, lying unconscious.”

Valentina took a deep breath trying to control her emotions and glanced at Juliana to see her reaction to her first statement before continuing with the subject.

Juliana offered a small nod to her girlfriend. She didn’t really know how to react to the things Valentina was saying, but she knew she had to listen to everything she had to say. Not only did she know that, but she also wanted that. Valentina opening up to her would maybe lead to her feeling more comfortable once again.

“And when you woke up I was extremely glad you were okay, but I thought I had lost you again,” Valentina breathed out her confession “Because I was forced into your life. I just didn’t want you to think that me becoming part of your life wasn’t something bad or something that would bother you.”

Both girls were silent for a few seconds. While Juliana thought of something to answer her girlfriend, Valentina started internally questioning with herself if opening up was a good idea. Sure, she felt like Juliana had given her the opening to do so, but she couldn’t help but think that she’d over stepped a barrier, that was a thought that had been engraved in her mind for the past couple months, after all.

Juliana gently placed her hand on Valentina’s cheek, running her thumb on her skin.

“Val, you won’t lose me,” She said as softly as she could “You have feelings too, your life also changed after all that has happened and I also want things to go back to normal for you; for us. I just want you to feel like you can be yourself around me, you won’t scare me away.”

Valentina nodded while a tear made it’s way down her cheek. Juliana offered her a small smile before pulling her into a hug.

“I love you.” Valentina finally felt secure enough that those three words wouldn’t creep Juliana out, and finally saying them made her feel lighter.

She didn’t care if Juliana didn’t correspond her feelings at that moment, she was just relieved and glad she wouldn’t have to hold back around Juliana as much anymore.

“I love you, too.” Juliana whispered back.

Valentina was slightly taken aback by Juliana’s words and pulled away from the hug with a puzzled look on her face. Juliana laughed a little at her girlfriend’s shock and closed the distance between them with a soft kiss.

“I do,” She clarified after pulling away from the short kiss “Is that so hard to believe?”

“N-no,” Valentina stuttered “Just a little unexpected.”

Juliana tilted her head a little with a smile on her face, it had felt great to finally let Valentina know how she felt, and she had quite enjoyed the reaction it had gotten from her girlfriend.

“I love you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi yall hope you're having a great day and that you enjoyed this chapter :)  
> if you have any suggestions or feedback leave them in the comment, i always go thorugh them and it helps so much!!  
> also thank you so much to everyone who's still keeping up with this story despite me taking forever to update every single time, i really appreciate you guys <3


	18. Magic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok, i'm sorry i know i suck lol i tried making it up to yall with this chapter so i hope you guys like it.  
> also this is kind of a filler chapter so if you feel uncomfortable reading it, you can skip it.  
> so yeah, good reading, scroll to the end of the chapter for more apologies ;)

_“Where are you taking me?”_

_“Val, wait like, two minutes. We’re getting there.”_

_It was a friday night and Juliana got home a little bit later than usual. As soon as she’d walked through the door, though, she told Valentina they were going on a little date and dragged her to her car almost immediately._

_Valentina couldn’t say she wasn’t surprised, it’s not that Juliana wasn’t attentive, but she didn’t really plan big things, she demonstrated her love on everyday details, and Valentina loved that. But whenever Juliana planned something bigger, they had a lot of fun and it made Valentina fall in love with her even harder, so she was quite excited for whatever was to come._

_“Can’t you give me a hint?” Valentina asked with a small pout forming on her lips._

_“Patience, amor.” Juliana said, removing one of her hands from the steering wheel and placing it on her girlfriend’s knee._

_Valentina nodded and grabbed Juliana’s hand in her own, smiling softly._

_After what was much more than two minutes, Juliana pulled over in front of a cute cozy looking small house. Valentina observed the house a bit more, trying to find out where they were, but the only hint she got was a plaque written “sculptural” and she honestly didn’t know what that could mean. She looked at her girlfriend with a small confused smile, but Juliana just smiled back at her._

_“Where are we?” Valentina asked with a small laugh._

_“It’s a pottery store!” Juliana pointed at the small house, looking as excited as a kid going to a toy store._

_“Are we going to buy mugs?” Valentina asked, still confused but loving the look on her girlfriend’s face._

_“No, we’re going to_ make _mugs.” Juliana explained, her smile widening._

_Valentina finally understood that Juliana was taking them to a pottery class and, as much as she was thrilled with the idea, Juliana’s excitement was what was making her the happiest at that moment._

_“You’re so cute,” Valentina said, leaning in for a short kiss on her girlfriend’s lips “My mug is going to be prettier.”_

_Juliana would fight back on that statement, but Valentina left no room for that, leaving the car as soon as she finished her sentence. Juliana shook her head with a silent laugh, but soon decided to leave the car to join her girlfriend._

\---

Juliana and Valentina’s relationship shifted after the talk they had that day and, along with that, many aspects of their lives. It’s not like they weren’t happy before their shared moment, but they felt like they experienced lighter and more genuine happiness after deciding to not hold back. It wasn’t easy at all times, mainly for Juliana.

As much as she loved Valentina, the younger woman still had just been through a highly traumatic experience. She had full consciousness that the whole situation affected them both, but she couldn’t help but think that the weight of the impacts weren’t equal. Juliana felt a little bit selfish for thinking that way, but she had literally forgotten everything that had happened in the previous three years.

Juliana tried to hide it, but she felt extremely frustrated by not being able to just resume her life normally, she didn’t want to take such a hard impact on the lives of people who were close to her like she was doing, but she didn’t know what normal truly meant. Deep inside, she was always scared of just being herself, cause she didn’t know if that was her version that everyone knew and loved.

She also didn’t understand why it was taking so long for her memories to come back. The doctor originally said it wouldn’t take more than one month for her life to be back on track, but it had already been three months. Juliana took that worry to her therapist, who she hoped would know something about her condition, and figured out that, as much as it was expected for her to fully regain her memory in a shorter period of time, there were some specific cases where the process would happen more sporadically.

There were many other frustrations the woman was working through on her weekly sessions with her therapist, and she had to admit that was making things so much better, her whole perspective about her recovery had shifted with the professional guidance. But Juliana was a practical person, and things going beyond the original plan were always a factor that generated anxiety.

But almost every time she was with Valentina, all those worries seemed to go away. She’d never been one to believe that love could change everything, but now she understood that, with the right kind of love, that was the truth. Being around her girlfriend made her instantly more relaxed. Even if her fear of being her wrong self was still buried somewhere inside her while they were together, Valentina showed her so much love that Juliana found it impossible to feel like she had changed.

They had loosen up around each other. Juliana started feeling like it didn’t make sense for her to be afraid of acting a certain way towards her girlfriend, and Valentina started understanding that manifesting her feelings properly wouldn’t scare Juliana away.

One thing that was helping them out with the development of their relationship was to just see themselves as a normal couple. They tried to overcome all the tension caused by any situation related to Juliana’s accident and, instead, focus on doing things normal couples would do. The world of dating was completely new for Juliana, and she had to admit that Valentina was turning everything into a dreamy experience.

There was one specific aspect of their relationship that wasn’t back to normal yet, one both of them were too afraid to bring up. Juliana because of her inexperience on the topic, and Valentina, her fear of pushing things too far with her girlfriend. It was, at times, hard and a bit awkward to live with the obvious sexual tension between them, but they tried not to make that a big thing. They had no rush on that subject, though, they had all their lives together to figure that out.

They had established a routine as a couple once again, although sometimes went a bit out of the ordinary. That was the case on one Friday night, Valentina had just got home after a long and stressful day at work and found it weird that Juliana still wasn’t home, usually she was the one to return home first.

Valentina sighed. She really wanted her girlfriend’s company at that moment. She decided to just sit down on their couch and browse through Netflix, looking for something to watch later. It didn’t take too long for her to hear Juliana fumbling with her keys on the other side of the door.

Juliana walked into their apartment, struggling to juggle all the objects she was holding. On one of her arms she had all her material from work while on the other, she had two bags hanging while holding the apartment’s keys on that hand. Valentina was too distracted by the amazing smell of the food her girlfriend was carrying to offer any help. After about a minute of just watching Juliana try to find a way to lock the door, she got up in a jump, realizing she should probably help her.

“Sorry it took me so long.” Valentina said, grabbing some things from Juliana’s arms so that she could move more freely.

“It’s okay,” Juliana laughed, finally locking the door “Hi.” She greeted Valentina, placing a small kiss on her cheek.

“Hi, Juls,” Valentina responded, walking towards the dining table so that she could have her arms free “What do you have there with you? It smells amazing.”

“Oh,” Juliana said after placing the bags on the kitchen counter, actually having forgotten about her plans for the night “I brought us some dinner.”

Valentina walked over to Juliana and wrapped her arms around her waist loosely.

“Thank you.” She said, placing a kiss on her forehead before pulling her fully into a hug.

Juliana rested her hand on Valentina’s shoulder and wrapped her arms around her neck.

“I was thinking we could have a little date night.” She said, feeling slightly embarrassed.

“Are you asking me out on a date?” Valentina smirked even though her girlfriend couldn’t really see her face at that moment.

“I’m asking you  _ in _ on a date,” Juliana clarified, “Just dinner and a movie, maybe.”

“I’d love that,” Valentina smiled widely “It’s been some time, huh?”

“Yeah, like three years or something.” Juliana teased, earning a giggle from her girlfriend.

Juliana enjoyed the moment of silence that came after that to remove her head from her girlfriend’s shoulder and lean in for a kiss.

“How was your day?” She asked after pulling away, rubbing Valentina’s shoulder a little.

“A little stressful,” She admitted “But it’s perfect right now.”

Juliana smiled at Valentina before fully pulling away and grabbing the bags taking them to the dining table.

“Shall we get started then?”

\---

The night was running really smoothly, the couple had a great time over dinner and had quite enjoyed the movie they’d picked, even though they weren’t fully paying attention to it the whole time. They had moved to another step of the date, where they were just talking while sitting on the couch.

After the movie had ended, they shifted their position. They were no longer tangled up on each other, but at least they could see the other’s face properly while talking.

“You really think magic is real?” Juliana asked, laughing lightly.

“That’s not what I’m saying!” Valentina tried to defend herself “All I’m saying is that there’s no way to prove that it’s not real.”

“I’m pretty sure there’s some science thing proving that magic isn’t real.”

“Juls, there’s no way of knowing,” Valentina insisted “Maybe wizards are just really good at hiding their powers.”

“Ok, you have a point.” Juliana laughed

“Plus, there’s a little bit of magic in life.” Valentina added.

“Like what?” Juliana frowned.

“I don’t know,” Valentina hesitated, looking down “Love is a little magical.”

Juliana smiled. She loved learning more about Valentina, and that said a lot about how she viewed the world.

“It is, huh?” She teased a little.

“Yeah.” Valentina confirmed, feeling a little less hesitant.

“I agree.”

Valentina finally looked up and smiled at her girlfriend. The process of them both leaning in for a kiss was kind of natural at that moment, things just felt right, maybe it was a little bit of magic.

Over the next few minutes, things started getting a little bit more heated up, and Valentina honestly felt a little disappointed when Juliana pulled their kiss apart.

“Do you want to go to the bedroom?” Juliana asked after some hesitation.

Valentina felt thrilled, she felt her heart beating faster, but she still wanted to make sure Juliana was comfortable.

“Do you?” She asked.

Juliana nodded and got up, reaching her hand out for Valentina, who was quick to grab it and stand next to her girlfriend. Juliana hesitantly led them to their room, stopping in front of the bed.

Juliana very gently pushed Valentina onto a sitting position at the edge of their bed and held her shoulders while she was still standing. She sighed lightly while looking at the ceiling, trying to get rid of all the remaining nervousness she had in her. Little did she know that as soon as she looked her girlfriend in the eyes, all her worries would go away, like they hadn’t even been there in the first place. She smiled at Valentina before straddling her lap, still holding most of her weight on her knees.

Valentina huffed a laugh while placing a light kiss on Juliana’s cheek. She had missed that kind of intimacy with her and, at that moment, she just felt pure joy and love. She wrapped her arms around the other woman’s waist and pulled her lightly so that she would rest all her weight on Valentina’s thighs. She closed her eyes and leaned in for a kiss that was just a little more intense than the previous one. Once Valentina started to feel a little too worked up, she separated their lips and looked into Juliana’s eyes.

“We can stop anytime you want.” She whispered, trying to make Juliana feel more comfortable.

“Val, I don’t want to stop.” Juliana answered in the same tone, a small smile traced on her lips.

“But you can change your mind whenever you want to.” Valentina reinforced. 

Juliana nodded in response, feeling grateful for Valentina’s understanding, but really believing that she wouldn’t change her mind by then. Valentina nodded more to herself than anything, getting ready for what was about to come and leaned in for a quick peck on her girlfriend’s lips.

“I love you.” She affirmed in a low tone.

“I love you too.”

Juliana’s answer made Valentina smile. She squeezed her arms a little tighter around her girlfriend’s waist while leaning in for a kiss that was quickly reciprocated. Juliana moved her hand from the resting position on her girlfriend’s shoulders, tangling her fingers in Valentina’s hair and lightly scratching her scalp. Valentina took that as a sign for her that it was okay to take things further and deepened their kiss, her tongue coming in contact with her girlfriend’s, which made her release a low throaty noise. The younger woman sighed into the kiss, tightening her grip on her girlfriend’s hair but making sure not to hurt her.

“Val.” Juliana mumbled in the brief moment their lips separated before crashing their lips together once again.

Valentina slowly moved her hands inside Juliana’s shirt, letting them rest on her bare back. Juliana enjoyed that opportunity to break their kiss and take off her own shirt, tossing it to the floor and then resting her hands on her girlfriend’s shoulder, trying to remove the light jacket she was wearing. As soon as Juliana succeeded, Valentina removed her shirt, tossing it next to Juliana’s.

Juliana looked down, blushing slightly. As much as she felt comfortable with Valentina, it was her first time sharing an experience like that with anyone and, even though she initially thought she wasn’t nervous anymore, the further they got into it, the more self conscious she started to feel.

“Are you okay?” Valentina asked, her voice full of concern due to her girlfriend’s expression.

“Yeah,” Juliana answered, almost in a whisper while nodding “I’m just-” She sighed in hesitation before going on “I’m just a little nervous.”

Valentina nodded, trying to think of a response that would sooth her girlfriend, while running her hands up and down Juliana’s sides.

“You don’t have to be nervous,” She answered, realizing that was probably not of much help “We can stop if you want to, it’s not too late. It’s never going to be too late.”

“I don’t want to stop,” Juliana smiled “I just don’t know what to do.”

“That’s the easy part,” Valentina said, looking at her girlfriend with a small smirk “You can do whatever you want.”

Juliana released a breathy laugh, but Valentina realized she was still trying to hide some nervousness. She leaned a little bit forward and placed a light kiss on Juliana’s neck.

“What can I do?” She asked, placing another kiss on her shoulder blade “To help you relax.” She explained staying where she was and peppering little kisses on the area.

“You’re helping.” Juliana answered sincerely. She felt like slowly things were beginning to flow more naturally.

Valentina released a quiet laugh, still focused on her task of spreading small kisses around Juliana’s neck and shoulder. She stopped and pulled away in order to look at her girlfriend.

“Come here,” She mumbled, placing a hand under Juliana’s chin and pulling her into another kiss.

Valentina started laying her back on the bed, pulling her girlfriend along with her until their chests were connected and Juliana was fully on top of her. Both of them giggled when Juliana’s hair fell all over Valentina’s face. Valentina used their small pause to brush all of Juliana’s hair out of the way, trying to place it all in one side of her neck. Meanwhile, Juliana was just enjoying the look of concentration in the other’s face.

“You’re so beautiful.” Juliana whispered, getting serious once again.

Valentina smiled and placed a small kiss on the corner of Juliana’s mouth.

“You are the most beautiful girl in the world.” She looked at Juliana for a moment, who blushed because of her words.

Juliana leaned in for a deep kiss. Valentina reciprocated the kiss while lowering her hands on Juliana’s back, sliding them into the pockets of her jeans. Juliana gasped a little when Valentina tightened her grip before starting to place kisses on other parts of her girlfriend’s face.

She started out in a safe zone, she kissed her cheek and then pecked her lips once again, placed a small kiss on the corner of her mouth, but then she started exploring new areas she didn’t know before. She started trailing kisses towards her jaw and went down through her neck, stopping where it met her shoulder to give some more attention to that area. Juliana opened her mouth and lightly sucked on the spot, causing Valentina to release a low moan.

Juliana smiled against her girlfriend’s skin, liking the reactions she could get from her. She then repeated the same process on a near spot, down Valentina’s collarbone, trying to get the same noise from her.

At the second time around, Valentina hummed and removed her hands from Juliana’s pockets bringing them up to tangle in her girlfriend’s hair so that she had enough control to pull Juliana in for another kiss. Valentina didn’t wait to deepen the kiss that time, earning a satisfied moan from her girlfriend.

She used her weight to turn them both sideways and hooked one of her legs around Juliana’s waist. The younger woman was quick to grab her thigh and squeeze it lightly, wanting to feel as much of her girlfriend as she could. She gripped Valentina’s pants and pulled on them a little in a lousy attempt to take them off.

“Val.” Juliana groaned, trying to get her girlfriend to understand what she was trying to do.

Valentina pulled away from their kiss, still holding on to her girlfriend’s hair and opened her eyes. Juliana was taken aback by the sight when she also opened her eyes, not understanding why the other girl stopped. She met a version of her girlfriend with swollen lips, slightly messy hair, and dilated pupils that hid part of the blue from her eyes. She took a brief moment to appreciate the sight before telling Valentina what she wanted.

“Your pants.”

Valentina looked down at her pants, not really understanding what she meant, but then realizing Juliana wanted her to take them off. She smiled and leaned in for a quick kiss before starting to untangle herself from Juliana.

“No!” She protested when Valentina got up.

“Juls, I can’t do everything at once.” She laughed while trying to take off her belt.

Juliana also got up, wanting to reduce her time away from Valentina as much as she could, and taking off her jeans before laying back in bed, resting on the headboard that time to get them to a more comfortable position. Valentina had a little bit of a harder time taking off her pants due to the complexity of the steps, but soon she rushed to the end of the bed and straddled Juliana’s lap.

Juliana let her hands rest on both of her girlfriend’s bare thighs, running her hands through the surface to feel her skin. Valentina ran her hands through her girlfriend’s hair until she reached her shoulders, holding on to them before leaning in for another kiss. Juliana allowed her senses to take in everything that was happening at that moment; she felt Valentina’s skin beneath her hand, heard the small moans her girlfriend was releasing, smelled her perfume all over the air, and tasted her lips.

She separated their kiss and started trailing kisses down Valentina’s neck, wanting to explore even more than she had before. She allowed her hands to lower further down into her girlfriend’s legs, reaching her butt.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Valentina whispered from her position.

“Yes.”

\---

“How do you feel?” Valentina asked, slightly concerned that some form of regret would take over Juliana.

“A little weird,” She scrunched up her nose with a small smile “But a good weird.”

Valentina turned her head to the side so that she could look at her girlfriend’s profile. When she felt the other girl’s gaze, Juliana turned her head around to look her in the eyes and smiled.

“It’s different from what I thought it would be,” Juliana explained “There’s so much more love involved.”

Valentina smiled lovingly, leaning forward and placing a quick peck on Juliana’s lips.

“It was always different with you,” Valentina said “It was never like this with anyone else before.”

Juliana felt weird when Valentina said that. Of course Valentina must’ve been with other people before, she was gorgeous and, after all, she’d lived an average teenage life (or almost that), but hearing the confirmation of that somehow made her feel a little jealous. She probably manifested it in her expression because her girlfriend frowned a little.

“What’s wrong?” Valentina asked, using her index finger to tilt Juliana’s chin up.

“I’m just being silly.” She dismissed, looking away.

“Juls, you can tell me anything.” Valentina affirmed with a soft voice.

“Anyone else?” Juliana finally asked, making her girlfriend smile “Were there a lot of people before me?” She continued, but soon realized that sounded a bit too bad “Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I mean, you’re your own person, you can do anything you want. And it’s not like we were even together or-”

By that point Valentina was full on laughing, but she decided to put an ending to her girlfriend’s torture.

“I’m going to stop you right there,” Valentina said, placing a finger on Juliana’s lips “You’re the only one that matters,” She said looking Juliana in the eyes “And if it makes you feel better, it wasn’t a lot of people.”

Juliana rolled her eyes at how much Valentina seemed to be enjoying torturing her.

“I told you I was being silly,” She said, looking away “I don’t care if you were with other people, I was just…”

“You were jealous?” Valentina asked after Juliana was silent for a few seconds.

“Maybe,” Juliana admitted “Just a little.”

Valentina smiled and scooched closer to her girlfriend, opening her arms as an invite for her to cuddle her. Juliana gladly fell into her girlfriend’s arms and hid her head a little on the crook of her neck. Valentina turned her head around and placed a kiss on Juliana’s hair.

“You have nothing to be jealous about,” Valentina guaranteed “I wish you’d been my first one.”

Valentina felt Juliana smiling against her neck and knew she had said the right thing.

“I love you, Val” She mumbled after a while.

“I love you, mi amor.” Valentina responded.

They laid together for a little while, just enjoying each other’s presence

Juliana parted their embrace after some time had passed, laying on her back and turning her face to look at Valentina.

“There was something else that was different about tonight.” She said, reluctantly.

“What?” Valentina turned her body sideways in order to face the other girl.

“You’re going to make fun of me.” Juliana affirmed looking back at the ceiling and adjusting the blanket around her a bit more.

“Juls, you have to tell me now,” Valentina giggled, scooching closer to her girlfriend and placing a very light kiss on her neck “Please.” She mumbled against the spot.

Juliana huffed, trying to remember at what specific moment Valentina started getting all the information she wanted out of her so easily, while the other girl still placed light kisses on her neck.

“It brought back some memories.” Juliana blushed a little as she explained.

Valentina propped herself up on one of her elbows, looking wide eyed at her girlfriend.

“Why would I make fun of that?” Valentina asked, smiling a little “You’re remembering things, Juls. That’s great!”

She basically threw herself into Juliana’s arms, still releasing some excited squeals. She turned her head and placed a kiss on her girlfriend’s hair. Juliana laughed a little at Valentina’s reaction and instantly wrapped her arms tightly around the other girl.

“Were they good memories?” Valentina couldn’t help but tease her a little.

“Shut up!” Juliana exclaimed, untangling herself from her girlfriend and turning around to face the other wall “I’m going to sleep, good night.”

“I’m joking!” 

“Good night.” Juliana repeated.

Valentina started getting worried her girlfriend was actually mad at her. She let Juliana lay in silence a little while, waiting to see if she would eventually turn back around. After a couple minutes, though, Valentina started worrying even more and decided to take action, she turned in bed so that she was facing Juliana’s back and placed a hand softly on her shoulder.

“Amor?” Valentina called her, running her thumb through Juliana’s soft skin “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you mad. I was just kidding.”

She sighed after not getting any response for a few seconds and gave up on trying to apologize; to be honest, she was quite confused, she really didn’t understand why such a small thing made Juliana so mad. Besides that, she was a little sad she wouldn’t get to spend the night holding Juliana after being away from her that way for so long.

“Okay,” She said, placing a kiss on her cheek “Good night.”

She turned around, frowning. That behaviour was really unlike Juliana, she was afraid the other girl had finally started feeling regret for the night they’d shared.

It wasn’t too long before Valentina felt Juliana’s arm sneaking around her, holding on to her waist, and also felt a few kisses on the back of her neck.

“I was just teasing you,” Juliana whispered in between kisses “I wouldn’t do this to you right now.”

“You scared me.” Valentina said, interlocking their fingers.

“I’m sorry, mi amor.”

Valentina tried to play it cool, as if she hadn’t realized Juliana had just called her ‘mi amor’ for the first time in literal months. But she couldn’t stop the biological reactions those words caused on her, she still felt her blood rise to her cheek and her heart racing a bit.

“I’ll forgive you,” She said, trying to keep her tone as stable as possible “Under one condition.”

“Whatever you want.” Juliana guaranteed.

“Give me another kiss before we go to sleep?” Valentina asked, turning around in her girlfriend’s embrace.

“However many you want.” Juliana smiled, looking at Valentina’s eyes.

Juliana moved her hand that was resting on the other girl’s arm to one of her cheek and ran her thumb through the soft skin of the region before closing her eyes and leaning in for a short kiss.

“Do you forgive me now?” She asked, opening her eyes, just to find Valentina with her eyes squeezed shut.

“That depends.”

“On what?” Juliana asked with a quiet laugh.

“Would you give me another kiss even if I’d already forgiven you?” Valentina asked, keeping her eyes shut.

She didn’t hear any response from her girlfriend’s part, but she soon felt her soft lips kissing her forehead, moving down to her nose and then finally meeting her own lips. Juliana lingered a little longer this time, prolonging their night as much as she could.

“I told you however many you want.” She said after pulling away.

Valentina smiled widely, finally opening her eyes. She stayed silent for some time, admiring Juliana for what seemed to be the thousandth time that night.

“I am really tired, though.” Juliana said after some silence, making Valentina laugh.

“Me too,” She said once her laughter died down “Come here.” She said opening her arms as an invite for Juliana.

Juliana quickly scooched over and closed the basically nonexistent distance between them, laying her head on Valentina’s chest. She felt her girlfriend placing a kiss on the top of her head before finally closing her eyes.

“Goodnight, Val.” She mumbled, already falling asleep

“Goodnight, chiquita.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> first of all, i'm sorry for kinda teasing you guys, i really was gonna go through with the smut thing but i couldn't lol it's a way too akward process for me so that's as far as i'm going, hope you still liked it tho lol.
> 
> as of my two month and a half break, i really am very sorry about that, i've been extremely busy lately and as much as i love writing with all my heart, i can't consider it a priority at this point in my life. maybe someday i'll get around to dedicating myself more to this task, but as of rn i have to completely dedicate myself to work and school and, honestly, taking care of myself too.  
> i hope yall understand this and can forgive me lol so yeah, that's also the reason i'm not gonna make any promisses on updating faster from now on. i'll keep on doing my best to create new content for yall, but it might take me a really long time sometimes, just know that i really plan on finishing this project, so it's not abandoned, i'm just a little slow.

**Author's Note:**

> my tumblr is @arnies-bitch if you wanna talk to me, it's more likely i'll reply faster over there :)


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